Take advantage of the capacity of the Reus and Girona airports, underused, diverting ten million passengers each year thanks to a part of the flights to European cities that are now operated in El Prat. Three million passengers in Reus, 35 minutes from Barcelona, ??thanks to the new high-speed train station approved by the Government next to the Costa Daurada airport.
The strategy would serve to decongest El Prat, free up space in its terminals and be able to bet on intercontinental flights, a pending issue, thanks to the controversial runway over the sea proposed as a solution to the expansion.
The plan is the work of the naval engineer Joaquim Coello, ideologue of the marine track along with former Minister Andreu Mas-Colell and the economist Guillem López Casasnovas, among others. Coello exposed his plan to get Reus off the ground in a conference given yesterday at his Chamber of Commerce. “If we want to have intercontinental flights, we need to take flights from Barcelona, ??origin and destination. We need to encourage companies like Vueling or Ryanair to want to make this change.”
“It is an opportunity for the Reus airport and it is not a problem, it has a long enough runway to be able to do it. It is perfect for this type of flight,” he said. For Coello it is a pity that Reus, and also Girona, are well below their operational capacity, with few connections to European cities, their great market. “Reus and Girona are wasted, it is nonsense. The opportunity is to fly to Europe, and this is not trivial. Being able to fly from Reus to Frankfurt, Berlin, Rome or Milan is very important for the business world”.
The market where Girona and Reus could fish is extensive, that of continental flights operated mainly by low cost lines in Barcelona. “El Prat has 128 European connections, it is the fourth European airport. Instead, it is the sixteenth in Europe in terms of intercontinental connections”, recalled Coello. Reus will have 22 destinations to European cities this season, which begins in March.
Coello’s conference aroused interest, with the presence of representatives of the economic fabric of Camp de Tarragona, as well as politicians. One of the most interested sectors is tourism. “It makes perfect sense to think that airport growth in Catalonia must go through Reus, which should be a more tractor airport; give it more value. We need passengers”, said Berta Cabré, president of the Tarragona Hospitality and Tourism Federation.
In addition to tourism, with great claims such as Port Aventura, which is betting on extending the season and opening almost all year round, Coello also sees potential in business trips. “You have to take advantage of Girona and Reus,” he insisted. Between the two airports they stayed far in 2022 from the three million passengers. Reus attracted 911,000 users and Girona 1.3 million.
“Our first proposal is the track over the sea; the second, to divert traffic from El Prat to nearby airports. There is no problem if you can be connected to Barcelona with a high-speed train that takes 35 minutes. When you go to London, most of the time you don’t go to Heathrow. You go to Stansted or Gatwick and take a train to London. Why don’t we do it here? Let’s take advantage of Girona and Reus, it is the second leg of our proposal ”, she added.
