The Generalitat of Catalonia is gradually weaving its proposal to increase intercontinental flights from Barcelona airport and Reus and Girona play a relevant role in this. The Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, never tires of repeating that the debate on the future of El Prat must include “the entire Catalan airport system”, in reference to the two territorial infrastructures.
But this time, the department he directs has gone one step further by considering that air activity is “too” concentrated in Barcelona and that this situation should change. “It is something that needs to be corrected,” said Daniel Albalate, director of Aeroports de Catalunya – dependent on Territori –, in a conference on sustainable mobility at elDiario.es held on Friday.
The director of the organization that manages Andorra-La Seu and Lleida-Alguarie (this airport is accumulating losses despite having cost 95 million euros of public investment) has coordinated a group of experts to prepare a proposal from the Generalitat for El Prat. The Government is waiting to present its formula, with its horizon set on the bilateral table between the central and Catalan Governments, which must negotiate a possible enlargement. This commission should be established this month if the calendar agreed between ERC and the PSC for the budgets is to be met.
With this backdrop, Albalate insisted that there is room to make better use of the Reus and Girona airports, currently “in lack of capacity.” Of the nearly 44 million passengers who passed through Aena airports in Catalonia last year, 95% did so in El Prat.
The power and attractiveness of Barcelona is one of the reasons why Reus and Girona do not take off. “They are communicating vessels; The main engine that limits Girona and Reus is the capacity of Barcelona,” he added. If it does not increase and becomes saturated, the other two airports will grow – he said –, while if El Prat expands, “the airlines will want to be in Barcelona.”
Sonia Corrochano, director of Airport Planning at Aena and former director of El Prat, defended in the same debate that each airport plays a specific role. The one in Barcelona, ??she pointed out, acts as a hub and needs a critical mass of short and medium-haul passengers to feed intercontinental flights. Reus and Girona, on the other hand, work for “point-to-point” trips, which have the same territory as their final destination. For his part, Pere Suau-Sanchez, professor at the UOC and Cranfield University, highlighted that around 60% of passengers from Reus and Girona actually travel to Barcelona.
In addition to introducing Reus and Girona into the equation, Councilor Ester Capella, who closed the conference, mentioned the other two points that will govern her position on the airport: the climate emergency, the preservation of the Llobregat natural spaces and shared governance. “We have to work with these consensuses that allow us to reach a real solution” for El Prat, she concluded.
