BARCELONA'S El Prat airport is about to get bigger: Expansion plans costing €1.7 billion are afoot, turning it into a major long-haul international terminal with a high-speed rail connection.
The express AVE service will link up to the airport in Spain's second-largest city and also to those of Reus (Tarragona province, on the Costa Daurada) and Girona in northern Catalunya, which serves the Costa Brava.
Ambitious plans currently still at the discussion stage will, additionally, involve expanding Madrid's Adolfo Suárez-Barajas airport at a cost of €1.6 million – already the largest in the country and the main gateway to Latin America via direct flights, the extra capacity may well mean it can operate other long-haul routes without requiring connections at other European terminals.
Government spokeswoman and territorial policy minister Isabel Rodríguez says the El Prat (pictured above) extension will create 85,000 jobs directly linked to the plans and 365,000 indirect jobs, although it is not clear whether this is merely during the construction phase or whether they will be permanent positions that a much larger airport would require to be filled.
She stresses that all the necessary environmental considerations for the expansion have been covered, although the last word will need to come from the European Commission.
This is because the plans, drafted by airport governing board AENA, will involve building a satellite terminal and extending the third runway by half a kilometre, and which might encroach on the La Ricarda lake in the Llobregat delta – a protected conservation area that falls within the European Union's Natura 2000 network.
But deputy president of Catalunya's regional government, Jordi Puigneró – also head of digital and territorial policy – stresses that the impact, if any, will be 'minimal'.
“We'll be keeping watch to ensure the effects are the minimum possible,” he assures, “and that if possible, these effects are nil.”
'Round-table discussion' to heal the rift
Isabel Rodríguez says this is the first face-to-face meeting between the regional and national government, and that it was very positive and 'a good start'.
She has agreed timescales with Catalunya's leaders for transferring funds, due to start next month, a time when the central government will also be joining regional Parliament members in a round-table discussion in an attempt to calm the ongoing political disputes between Spain and the north-eastern region, which came to a head in October 2017 after an unlawful referendum was held over Catalunya's independence.
The then central government, led by the right-wing PP, had flatly refused to even discuss the issue of secession, stating that even a non-binding opinion poll would be in breach of the Constitution and that, as far as they were concerned, the subject was closed before it was even opened.
It merely warned Catalunya's regional government that if it went ahead with any referendum, advisory or not, criminal action would be taken against those involved.
When Catalunya went ahead anyway, the national government stripped the region of its devolved powers and arrested its politicians – those who had not immediately gone into exile elsewhere in Europe.
Spain's current president, Pedro Sánchez, of the centre-left socialists (PSOE) recently released the jailed politicians after more than three years in custody, and suspended their sentences.
Right-wing parties and their voters harshly criticised the move, but Sánchez said it was the only way forward to enable the relationship between Spain and Catalunya to heal and to put the past conflict behind them.
Sánchez assured the regional politicians 'would not try it again', since they knew they would end up back behind bars if they did.
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