The proposal for a new runway over the sea to expand the Barcelona airport that has come into the hands of the Government has promoted the debate on the future of the infrastructure and its role in the Catalan economy. Political parties, with the exception of the common ones, and civil society agree that the analyzes on El Prat cannot be postponed any longer and have shown themselves willing to study all the options to find a solution that improves intercontinental connectivity, with greater added value.
This was highlighted by Ernest Maragall, ERC leader at Barcelona City Council, during an event in the city. The Republican candidate for mayor positively valued the contribution of "ideas, proposals and possible solutions to technical approaches" on the airport. The way to build a new runway some 3,400 meters long over the sea and one mile from the coast, advanced by La Vanguardia yesterday, tries to safeguard the protected areas of La Ricarda and El Remolar, adjacent to the current third runway, and which they have been marked as red lines by Republicans.
It is not the first time that this proposal has been put on the table. At the end of the 1990s, when the first major expansion of the airport was undertaken, it was considered to install a runway over the sea, but it was finally discarded, and in 2004 the third runway came into operation, 2,660 meters long and cannot be be used by all long-haul aircraft, those flying to the West Coast of the United States or to Asia.
Other forums and institutions have also supported this solution. This is the case of the president of Fira de Barcelona, Pau Relat, who in 2019, when the debate began on the need to expand El Prat again, suggested the construction of a track over the sea to turn Barcelona into a "hub of first magnitude.
However, the current alternative, led by the engineer Joaquim Coello, would also affect the Natura 2000 network -the one on the coast-, so the approval of the EU must be obtained before acting, as is the case with the initial project of Aena.
Maragall trusted that the technical tables agreed between the ERC and the PSC in the Generalitat's budget agreement would be set up shortly, and it will be here, he continued, where the different options will be compared. Decisions on this “critical” infrastructure, he said, cannot be delayed any longer.
The leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, pointed in the same direction. "We are going to study everything, the airport has to gain capacity and it has to do so as soon as possible," he stressed during a visit to Sant Adrià del Besòs. Expanding El Prat with a fourth marine track, even so, is not among his first options, a position supported by the candidate of the Catalan socialists for mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni.
Civil society also welcomed the fact that immobility has been put aside and that the future of the airport returns to the field of political and technical negotiation. “We are satisfied that the Generalitat finally moves this issue; the airport has to take a big leap and from Foment we offer to help find solutions”, stated Lluís Moreno, president of the commission for the expansion of El Prat de Foment del Treball.
The employers activated an analysis table on the airport seven months ago and expects to publish its conclusions in June. Engineers, technicians, politicians from different formations and ecologists have participated in this commission or have yet to do so, providing studies and data on the situation of the airport and its options for improvement.
"During these months we have studied different solutions, their pros and cons, in a very rigorous way," Moreno continues. Among others, the possibility of extending the third runway below 500 meters towards Ricarda, of extending its extension to the east and west to preserve the lagoons, of building a new airport or of transferring traffic to Reus and Girona has been debated. . Also from the fourth track over the sea. "It would be very expensive and would have a great environmental impact," says Moreno. The mayor of El Prat de Llobregat, Lluís Mijoler, has already shown his rejection of this possibility on his social networks.
The debate is thus boiling again, and all the options, on the table. The position of Aena and the Ministry of Transport will be a fundamental piece in the outcome of the negotiation.
