With the expansion of the Prat pending the progress made by the commission formed by the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Spanish Government, Madrid is taking the lead. The president of the Spanish Executive, Pedro Sánchez, confirmed yesterday an investment of 2,400 million to reform the Barajas airport with the aim of being able to take on the expected demand for flights coming mainly from America.
The investment amount is not new. Aena has been working on the project at the airport in the Spanish capital for some time and, in fact, the first works have already begun. But Sánchez's statement does ratify the strategy of positioning the Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas airport as a reference air hub with Latin America and, potentially, with Asia.
It is "the most important investment in a decade in airport infrastructure in Spain", highlighted Sánchez during his visit to the international tourism fair, Fitur. The aim is for Barajas to increase its capacity from the current 70 million passengers to 90 million. The one in Madrid, added the president of the Spanish Government, is "the airport with the most potential for growth in Europe, a project that aims to consolidate Spain as a world power in tourism".
The plan designed by Aena for Barajas calls for incorporating 100 new counters in T4, extending the dikes and expanding the aircraft parking platform. At T4S, the goal is for the dike area to grow by 400 meters with a global reconfiguration of the safety filters. The first three terminals, on the other hand, will be called "T123" and in the words of the president of Aena, Maurici Lucena, they will be a "processor" where the first passenger billing procedures will be carried out. In addition, a large photovoltaic plant will be built on the premises.
The investment will result, said Sánchez, in a strong growth of passengers and routes, and also in the creation of thousands of jobs, direct and indirect.
The ratification of the billion-dollar investment in Barajas was positively received by the airlines. The president of the sector's employers' association (ALA), Javier Gándara, stated that the sector will always defend that "investments [in airports] must be necessary and efficient so that we can continue to have the best connectivity with our country". He recalled that it is the airport fees that cover these investments, hence the importance of the next Airport Regulation Document (DORA 3) which will come into force in 2027.
The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, also defended the expansion of Barajas and publicly refuted Sumar's position. The new parliamentary spokesman for Sumar, Íñigo Errejón, assured that "it is an economic and ecological nonsense and means returning to models of the past". Sumar's ministers had no prior information about the statements that Sánchez would make. Puente responded to Errejón on X (formerly Twitter) stating that “Iñigo wants to travel to Buenos Aires or Hong Kong by train. We are working on it, but at the moment it is a bit difficult".
Transports set this same week as priorities of the legislature "the execution of the expansion plans of several airports", both Barajas and El Prat. Regarding the one in Barcelona, Puente stated that the Spanish Government's proposal calls for expanding the third runway to avoid problems for neighbors and reduce the environmental impact.
"With regard to the JosepTarradellas Barcelona-el Prat airport expansion project, we will continue to work to achieve the necessary institutional consensus and ensure that this airport becomes a first-class intercontinental air hub", assured the minister.
