The Government and the Generalitat are looking for a date to establish the technical commission on the future of Barcelona airport as soon as possible. With the negotiation of the investiture of Pedro Sánchez in the final stages, the way has been cleared to set a date and names to the table that must study the possible expansion of El Prat. “We are looking for a date so that the commission can begin,” the Government spokesperson, Patrícia Plaja, highlighted yesterday, after the Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, and the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, have exchanged letters urging it to be activated before before the end of the year, as agreed by ERC and the PSC in the Catalan budget pact.
The General Secretariat of Transportation is working “actively,” Sánchez detailed in his letter, to organize the first meeting. The ministry will convene "in the coming days" the corresponding teams to discuss the composition and operation of the commission, explained the head of Transportation. The Generalitat, for its part, has yet to decide the team that will be part of it, while finalizing its own proposal to improve capacity and long-haul flights to El Prat.
Sánchez was convinced that this commission would achieve “a solution” of consensus “to carry out the expansion of the airport”, derailed two years ago by the doubts of the Republicans and the differences with JxCat, then in the Government. Capella, in her writing, however, did not mention the extension and limited herself to talking about the modernization and improvement of the infrastructure.
Pressure from Catalan business organizations, with Foment del Treball at the helm, to address the situation at the airport without delay has also weighed on the rush to establish the commission. The employers' association has analyzed eleven expansion proposals, which the Generalitat knew in advance and which it has studied, without taking a position on any of them.
In any case, it defends that a possible increase in capacity does not serve to fill Barcelona with more low-cost flights. In fact, it has already proposed diverting part of these to Reus and Girona, which put the airlines, mainly Vueling, on alert.
But the technical “improvement” of the airport is not the only objective of the Government. In the negotiation, the Executive will also put on the table an issue of political overtones, the management of El Prat, in which it insists on participating.
