Modify the operation of the El Prat airport runways only during the months of July and August and from ten in the morning to two in the afternoon. This is the Government’s proposal, as La Vanguardia has learned, to increase the capacity of the infrastructure and thus be able to take on a greater number of long-haul flights.
Currently, El Prat works with two parallel lanes and another transversal one, which is used at night or in periods of little activity. Of the first two, the longest and the one furthest from the sea is for landings; the other, for takeoffs. The proposal involves that in July and August, in a four-hour time slot starting at ten in the morning, these two parallel runways become independent, to both take on landings and takeoffs on their own. The measure would allow us to go from 78 flights per hour to 90, the maximum foreseen in the environmental impact declaration.
The ERC Executive justifies this timing: only during these two months is “the maximum available capacity” of Catalonia’s first airport reached, especially due to the increase in demand for intercontinental flights. And they point out that Aena “oversizes” the limitations of El Prat and assures that there are congestion problems for only a few hours a day in a few weeks of the year. The calculation? 1.2% of the annual time and mostly in summer.
The Aragonès Government’s plan also calls for changing the governance model, which is currently in the hands of Aena, so that the Generalitat joins the management of the airports located in Catalonia. This is because the Catalan Cabinet is committed to also increasing the complementary role of the Girona and Reus airports and channeling the growth in flights there. The high-speed train interconnection with Barcelona would be completely necessary.
Furthermore, the Government considers that it is not tolerable for Aena, as a public-private entity, to manage and govern at the same time. The change in governance goes in the direction of “protecting the general interests, and not the particular ones that Aena has.” They insist that theirs is to favor long-haul flights and affirm that changes in the operation of this option, without the participation of the Generalitat, would be giving “a blank check to Aena.”
The Republicans consider that theirs is the best formula so that the protected natural spaces of Ricarda and Remolar are not affected, which other projects do affect. Furthermore, in his opinion, it would not interfere with the development of the port of Barcelona.
But one of the big problems with what the Government proposes is the acoustic impact it implies and which has caused so many complaints from some residents of Gavà and Castelldefels. With the proposal, the Catalan Executive, in addition to highlighting the temporality of the possible inconveniences, ensures that “in no case will the legal acoustic limit be exceeded in the affected homes.”
But it proposes mitigating noise pollution with an investment plan that includes, for example, soundproofing in residential spaces, the purchase of homes or financial compensation for neighbors. The Government suggests that to pay for it, the 260 million euros planned for an expansion of the third runway that ERC is not willing to carry out, unlike the State or Foment, be allocated.
In the same way, ERC continues to demand the satellite terminal, because, among other reasons, it would contribute to intercontinental connectivity. The Spanish government has raised it several times over the years, but has never executed it. That is why the Government does not understand that they link its construction to a hypothetical expansion of the airport runways and the 1.7 billion euros of investment planned for modernization.
The option is not known to date by the ministry. Not in vain, the Generalitat-State technical commission for the improvement of the El Prat airport only met in January, and to be established. The Government will take office after the elections on May 12. The bet could remain a dead letter, but in Palau they believe that, in addition to being easily reversible, any government can assume it.
