Two organized groups of suitcase packers share terminal 1 of the Prat. Its members move around with a roll of cellophane in hand and offer their services to travelers as they line up to check-in. There are about fifteen people who stand next to the entrance doors of the infrastructure arrivals area. They do it without any kind of permit, clandestinely, and only cover up a little when they see a policeman, a security guard... It's an underground and very lucrative business.
This service was offered by a private company before the pandemic. Then the terminals had machines that the operators operated and where the suitcases turned around until they were perfectly retracted. With the drop in passenger numbers due to covid, the contract was terminated. After the flights returned, several people sensed an unmet need and began offering their services, with a roll of cellophane under their arm, a tube of duct tape around their wrist, some with gloves, in a way that is as irregular as it is spontaneous. In recent weeks, however, with the airport in full swing for the summer season, the atmosphere has become rarefied.
A glance at the very long queues in front of the check-in counters reveals that all this constitutes a very profitable business. There is a lot of money at stake. Packing a small suitcase costs five euros; a large ten, although the price is not written and varies depending on the purchasing power and the amount of cash notes they detect on the customer. Hence the growing tension. Here you can not present anyone cheerfully. Everyone has their role, their space, their work area.
In fact, the latest interventions by the Mossos d'Esquadra have tried to stop the usual fights over the territory between the two groups that are distributed on both sides of the departures area of Terminal 1. Some work mainly at the counters of transcontinental flights with destination in Asia, others focus on waiting for planes going to America. The central area, in which Vueling reigns with European destinations, does not interest them, travelers who decide to pack their bags tend to spend many more hours on a plane, probably with a layover at another airport.
All the time they are whispering "packing, packing" to people who arrive looking at the time and who don't want to find their suitcase discarded when it appears on the baggage claim belt of the exotic destination they are traveling to. There are also some packers in Terminal 2, taking advantage of the fact that low-cost airlines are putting more baggage in the cabin than ever before. They take the suitcases in question and place them on the floor, again and again, until they are completely covered. The airport's private security officers do a routine round and then they all disappear at once, but less than five minutes later they have already recovered their positions. The usual immigration control devices deployed by the Mossos and the National Police also fail to deter them.
Pirate packers are not a profession exclusive to El Prat airport. We can find them in many airports in the rest of the world. They also try to make a living at other Spanish airports. What is happening is that the one in Barcelona is the only one among the most important that has not yet been able to recover the conventional packaging service, which is still pending the award of the corresponding administrative concession. Aena put it out to tender a few weeks ago, and the deadline for submitting offers closed on July 31. Sources from the airport manager confirm that there are companies interested and, therefore, before the end of the year, the service understood as it was before the pandemic will be restored, with those platforms that turn on themselves, the payment with dataphone and even invoice
"This depends on the day" - says one of these clandestine packers, a bit evasive. "A lot of people are coming today, but more slowly than I expected, the truth." "We are here because we can" - says another, visibly annoyed by the questions. "The police know we are here. We are all identified. We only pack suitcases, what's the problem? Is there any problem? Has anyone complained about it? Well then..." "Let's see - a third intervenes, very annoyed, one of those who sings in all this - that the people at the airport have told us that nothing will happen as long as we are discreet, that we do not stand in front of the cameras, that we don't allow ourselves to be photographed, and these things, that if the television comes to record any news, then we hide and wait for a moment, has anyone complained about it?".
So when La Vanguardia's photographer is caught taking the snapshots that accompany these paragraphs, unrest among the packers is unleashed. "You have no right to photograph us without our permission." "They must delete all these photographs right now." "Do they want us all to come? Because there are more than fifteen of us! Do you understand?". Some surround the photographer, follow him down the ramps leading to the taxi stand. "You will not leave here with these photographs, you have no right to them!". We will notify the police!" These ways are not a reflection of the impunity with which these organized groups act at El Prat airport, but of the fear of losing one of the most lucrative underground businesses this summer.
