The end of the restrictions due to covid in most countries and the start of the summer season have given Barcelona airport a new boost. Intercontinental flights, those that provide the greatest added value and place airports in the league of hubs, have increased considerably and airlines have already recovered 80% of the non-European destinations that they scheduled in 2019, before the pandemic, indicate the latest data from Aena.
That year El Prat reached its record for intercontinental destinations, with 46 cities on offer. Last summer, even with the recovery of the air business and tourism at half gas, 30 different destinations were scheduled and for this 2022 there are 37 planned, with a prominent weight from the United States and Morocco.
Intercontinental connections are especially relevant because they bring economic dynamism to the region and have a direct impact on the business fabric where the airports are located, hence the importance of recovering these flights, highlights Alicia Casart, director of Infrastructures of the Chamber, an institution which forms part of the Barcelona Air Routes Development Committee together with Aena, the city council and the Generalitat. “The recovery is being positive; the airlines have made a seat schedule that is close to that of 2019, and that means that Barcelona continues to be an attractive city and has potential”, adds Casart.
The United States has established itself as the first air market for Barcelona outside the EU. For this season, the companies fly from El Prat to nine destinations in the country: two of the New York airports (JFK and EWR), Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington. Now, not all pre-pandemic connections have been recovered. Flights to Charlotte are still grounded, for example. Some of the pre-covid flights to Latin America, such as Lima or Santiago de Chile, are also not covered. All in all, the American continent is the one that is best connected with Barcelona, with 17 destinations in total and the recent inclusion of Canada.
It is followed by Africa, and specifically, Morocco. The country with which Spain has just reached an unexpected agreement on the Sahara has eight cities that can be flown to directly from El Prat, operated by several airlines. Thus, Barcelona has connections with Fez, Marrakech, Nador, Casablanca, Tangier, Rabat, Agadir and Oujda. Algeria, Gambia, Senegal, Egypt and Tunisia complete the list of destinations in Africa, while direct flights to the Middle East have been reopened with Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, the United Arab Emirates (Abud Dhabi and Dubai) and Qatar.
The great pending subject of the airport continues to be the connection with Asia. China and other countries on the continent maintain strict restrictions on travel, so El Prat has only been able to recover flights with Singapore and is awaiting the reopening in the east. This market continues to be a priority for Aena. The airport manager considers that Barcelona can act as a node between Asia and America and that it has a great margin for growth once travel restrictions are lifted.
Before the pandemic, flights between the continent and the Catalan capital multiplied to reach 20 routes with Asia in 2019, operated by companies such as Air China, Cathay or Korean Airlines. Apart from the passengers who flew directly between Asia and Barcelona, the airport received 1.8 million passengers that year from the Asian market indirectly. That is, they traveled to El Prat with a stopover at another airport, mainly from the Middle East, because they did not find direct flights.
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