A full year. This is the limit set by the central government and the Generalitat to agree a solution on Barcelona airport. The goal is shared: to increase and improve intercontinental connections, with more added value. But not the way to achieve it, and it is this point that will be addressed by the technical commission that started yesterday. The commitment involves offering proposals at the end of the year and validating one politically. This is the one that would be applied to make possible the long-awaited increase in long-distance flights. If a consensus is indeed reached.
At the first meeting of the table on the airport, held in Barcelona, ??the Secretary General of Air and Maritime Transport, Benito Núñez, participated on behalf of the Ministry of Transport; the director general of Civil Aviation, David Benito, and the technician of the general directorate of Civil Aviation, Andrés López. On behalf of the Generalitat, the Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructures, Marc Sanglas, went there; the president and CEO of Aeroports de Catalunya, Daniel Albalate, and the general director of Interdepartmental Coordination, Marc Ramentol.
They agreed to create joint commissions between the Central Government and the Catalan Executive, but the number and members have yet to be specified. The Generalitat wants to analyze the governance (having decision-making power over the management of the airport), the infrastructure (if the expansion of the third runway is necessary and possible alternatives) and the railway connections of the airports of Reus and Girona with Barcelona, ??Sanglas advanced. However, the areas of the commissions have yet to be decided between the two administrations. Sources from the central government point out that there are already instruments for participation by the Generalitat, such as the Air Routes Development committee or the Airport Coordination committee. This space is co-chaired by the Department of Territory and also has councils and economic and social agents. In addition, remember that El Prat is an airport of general interest and the management corresponds to Aena. The competence limits of each administration for infrastructures of this kind are fixed by law. As for the high speed at the airports of Reus and Girona, they are progressing independently of the negotiation about the airport, with work already advanced.
The political calendar and the dynamics of air activity are urgent. The Catalan elections will be in February 2025 at the earliest, so a solution must be agreed before the end of the legislature. Added to this is the increase in passengers at Barcelona airport, which is already approaching its capacity limit, set at 55 million passengers. The interest of the airlines in opening long-distance routes with the Catalan capital is also in full swing. El Prat has already reached the number of pre-pandemic intercontinental connections this winter and in the summer an increase is expected that may touch the ceiling, given the current conditions, the director, Eva Valenzuela, recently warned. The possible extension should also arrive in time for it to be included in the next airport planning document (DORA III), planned for the period 2027-2031 and which must be approved at the end of 2026.
In this way, an attempt is made to respond to a debate that has dragged on for three years and that has caused confrontation in different areas: internally between ERC and JxCat, between the Generalitat and the central government and between municipalities and ecologists . The business world has defended, for its part, the need to expand the airport, with the employer Foment at the helm. Last year, the organization presented its conclusions on El Prat, with ten proposals to increase capacity, which included expanding the third track with an elevated platform over the Ricarda lagoon.
The central government, for its part, maintains the initial expansion proposal, with an expected investment of 1,700 million euros. The Generalitat, on the other hand, has yet to define its alternative, although it has advocated repeatedly to distribute flights between the airports of Barcelona, ??Reus and Girona to decongest El Prat. In this sense, Sanglas pointed out yesterday: “We want more international flights”, but the infrastructure will have to respect “the environment and the acoustic rights of the neighbours”.
