Starting tomorrow, Monday, Barcelona will host the annual summit of the Airports Council International (ACI), a meeting in which more than 700 companies will participate and where 2,000 airports from 140 countries will be represented to face the situation and challenges of the sector. Aena acts as host in this edition, and its president, Maurici Lucena, has chosen the Catalan capital to host this meeting, the most important in the airport industry worldwide. A way, he affirms, to “recognize the international projection of Barcelona, ??its importance, its cosmopolitanism and also to reinforce Aena’s commitment to the city and its airport”, the future of which he analyzes in conversation with La Vanguardia.
El Prat has not yet reached the pre-pandemic passenger figures, while other airports, such as Palma or Malaga, are already above, and Barajas, although it is also still below, is closer. Because?
Barcelona, ??like Madrid, is at a level of around 97% compared to 2019, which was a year of absolute record. In 2019 Madrid was the fourth airport with the most traffic in the EU and Barcelona the fifth and in airports of this size the recovery lags a bit behind worldwide in relation to that of tourist airports, because they are more sophisticated airports, with a more varied composition of their traffic and that cover a more extensive geography. The war in Ukraine, the late post-covid opening of China and the slower reactivation of international connections themselves affect this type of airport. That said, when we compare Barcelona with airports of the same size in the rest of the world, we see that it is ahead in its recovery and, therefore, it will take a matter of a few months before it returns to normal. I give Barcelona and Madrid for recovered.
In recent months, several relevant decisions have coincided that try to reduce air traffic. One is that of the Amsterdam airport, which is trying to cut its capacity and has faced it with the airlines; and another that of the French Government, which has prohibited short flights with an alternative train. We are also in a climate emergency situation and, in Spain, in a severe drought. Does the El Prat expansion proposal not collide with this?
The decisions of France or Amsterdam are striking, but the truth is that air traffic worldwide is going to increase significantly for demographic and economic reasons. In the case of the Barcelona airport, some of the most vehement positions against expansion actually defend the thesis of economic decline. This is something very dangerous because without economic growth it will be impossible to produce the gigantic investments that the world economy needs to decarbonise activity with new technologies. Furthermore, economic degrowth is a profoundly regressive thesis. Having said this, the great challenge is how to reconcile the fact of flying more with the decarbonisation of air activity in the coming decades. For Barcelona and Catalonia, not expanding the airport is assuming that the competitiveness of the Catalan economy and its future growth will be seriously affected. Big cities need long-haul intercontinental flights, they need airports that allow it and without that they will not be able to compete economically in the world.
Do you trust that the budget pact between ERC and the PSC in Catalonia will unravel the negotiation on the future of El Prat?
There is a commitment to set up an institutional table between the Government of Spain and the Government of the Generalitat. We will have to see how it develops, but without the support of the Government it is impossible for it to prosper. Without their support, the Barcelona airport expansion project will die, because it is complex from a technical and, above all, an environmental point of view, and without political leadership from the Catalan Government, it will not succeed. So far there has been rejection on their part.
Civil society in Catalonia has made contributions and proposals to increase the capacity of intercontinental flights. Among these, the one that has sparked the most debate is the track over the sea. Do you see it viable?
Aena and I personally welcome the public debate and the effort made by business organizations and prominent members of civil society. Aena is the largest airport manager in the world and the technicians of this company have been working on the expansion project that we presented in 2020 for years. We had studied all the alternatives for years, including a runway over the sea. The project that we finally proposed [extend the third runway 500 meters to the east and a satellite terminal] is the one that we believe reconciles three objectives in the most harmonious way possible: turning El Prat into an intercontinental hub, for which it needs to increase its capacity long radius, minimize noise in neighboring municipalities and minimize environmental impact.
Both the Government and part of civil society ask that the management of El Prat be done from the territory. Would they be willing to share the management of the airport with the Government?
We are open to reinforcing existing institutional collaboration mechanisms and improving them. For example, the Barcelona airport airport route development committee has been a resounding success and the evolution of the Barcelona airport in the last 20 years has been a case of extraordinary success, exceeding the forecasts of Aena itself and of all the players in the airline industry. The network model is the one that, to a very important extent, explains this, and in fact, the international trend of the most competitive and efficient airport managers is to develop airport networks, which is Aena’s operating model. Collaboration mechanisms can be improved or strengthened, but at the same time it must be remembered that Aena belongs to its shareholders, we are listed on the stock market, and this reality is not neutral when assessing how you manage your main infrastructures.
Can the new appointments in the departments of Territory and the Environment facilitate the dialogue on the airport?
I have known Ester Capella [Councillor of Territori] for years and I have a very good opinion of her. She has great professional and political quality and hopefully her incorporation will serve to modify the opposition of the Government of the Generalitat to the expansion project.
With the merger of Iberia and Air Europa in the offing, Barajas would become a great hub. How would this process affect Barcelona airport?
I would not analyze it in terms of Madrid-Barcelona. The merger between Iberia and Air Europa would be good for all Spanish airports. If it occurs, because it is pending from the European Competition authorities, it will reinforce the international connections of the Madrid airport and that will promote airlines that could also operate in Barcelona. On the other hand, the expansion of the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport will technically begin in August with the plan to finish in 2030. Aena will invest 2,400 million euros in this expansion which, as has been mentioned before, will have a strong economic impact for life of its citizens. If Barcelona does not address this enlargement, as we have said, the economy will suffer.
Airlines and Railways are joining forces and calling for the connection of airports with high-speed rail. What impact can this trend have?
We welcome such arrangements. It seems to us an absolutely natural trend that in no way questions the growing demand for long-haul or intra-European flights, which will continue to exist. It does not cause us any concern, on the contrary, we think that it is the natural course of things and this will also reinforce the demand for long-haul flights, since they can also be fed by the train.
Duty free concessions have been a big problem in the last year, Madrid and Barcelona were deserted. Will the process be closed on the scheduled date in July?
I am absolutely convinced that at the end of July, the award of the new Duty Free contracts, including those in Madrid and Barcelona, ??will be awarded at least at the minimum price established in the specifications, which is the same as that of the tender that was abandoned.
