This year's Airports Council International (ACI) prize for the best large airport in Europe has been awarded to Madrid's Barajas airport, which has also recently won a number of architecture awards for the new Terminal Four building.

There are only nine others in the +25 million passengers per year category, including last year's winner, Amsterdam's Schipol airport. The other eight are: Heathrow, Gatwick, Roissy and Charles de Gaulle (Paris), Frankfurt, Munich, Rome and Barcelona.

In a press statement, the ACI explained that the prize had been awarded for the way that the airport dealt with a period of "surprising growth (+14% in 2007) while carrying out a successful expansion," as well as for "providing the highest possible service levels while at the same time keeping airport taxes at a comparatively low level."

Last year, Barajas handled more than 52 million passengers, making it the tenth busiest airport in the world, and the fourth busiest in Europe, only just behind Frankfurt, in terms of passenger numbers.