The proposal of the Government of the Generalitat to increase the capacity of the El Prat airport without expanding the third runway is adding rejections. After the no from the residents and mayors of the neighboring towns and the airlines that have to use the infrastructure, it is now Aena that opposes the plan presented by the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, last week.
The president of the airport manager, Maurici Lucena, has made an amendment to the entire proposal during the general meeting of shareholders held this Thursday, where the accounts of the listed company and the distribution of a historic dividend (almost 1,150 million euros, of which the State will receive 586 million as owner of 51% of the shares). The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has already described the idea launched by the Generalitat as “short-range.”
In his speech to the shareholders, Lucena defended that Aena’s aeronautical engineers who have supervised the proposal to extend the third runway by 500 meters are “among the most prestigious in the world.” On the other hand, and with irony, the manager has stated that when he reviews “some of the colourful, happy and friendly proposals regarding the expansion of the airport (…), the last one by the Government of the Generalitat”, it comes to mind a phrase from Azaña. “If each Spaniard spoke only about what he knows, there would be a great national silence that we could take advantage of to study. Well, that’s it,” he launched in reference to the ERC Government’s plan, sparking some laughter among the shareholders present at the meeting.
However, it has valued the contributions about the airport made by civil society, such as Foment del Treball, Barcelona Global or the Cercle d’Economia. Aragonès has proposed using the runways independently (both for takeoffs and landings) in the months of July and August in a morning time slot and diverting part of the short and medium-haul flights to the airports of Reus and Girona to increase the capacity for intercontinental routes.
Regarding a hypothetical transfer of the management of El Prat that the Generalitat also demands, Lucena has closed the door to this ever happening. The airport manager has a strong investment plan underway to improve and expand some of the main airports in its network. The main one, Barajas, to which it will allocate 2.4 billion euros to increase its capacity and strengthen its position in connections with America and Asia. Tenerife, Alicante and Valencia will be other airports that Aena plans to expand, although the list is longer. In contrast, Lucena has lamented the “dull stagnation” of El Prat. Barcelona is also approaching its technical passenger limit, he warned, set at 55 million travelers per year.
With the expansion paralyzed, the company will carry out improvement works in T1 to install new security filters, which will be used to move there the large Miró mural that now languishes in T2. The urban planning process to carry out the airport city is proving to be more difficult, the procedures for which are taking longer than Aena expected, unlike what is happening with the Barajas project.
Regarding the company’s financial situation, Lucena anticipated that the dividend will be higher next year, since the company hopes to “beat” its profit record again this 2024. “We are on track to shatter the activity records of 2023 , he reiterated. Spanish airports have recorded historic passenger numbers in the first quarter of the year and airlines have scheduled 8% more seats for this summer season.
