The approval by the Council of Ministers of the DORA III plan as a guideline for airport development during the 2027-2031 five-year period provides content, and money, to the Barcelona-El Prat airport expansion project. The Government has given the green light to “an investment of 1.96 billion euros in the airports of Catalonia,” within the nearly 13 billion planned for the entire Spanish airport network. Up to 1.76 billion euros are for structural improvements in the terminals and runway maintenance at Barcelona airport. As Aena had already announced, the controversial expansion of the third runway, the one closest to the sea, is for now excluded from the investment package. “The satellite terminal, the runway extension, the lengthening, and other reforms in the airfield will be in DORA IV,” specified Aena’s CEO, Maurici Lucena, before the summer.
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At Josep Tarradellas, which recorded a record 5.9 million users this August, a reconfiguration of terminals T1 and T2 is planned to refresh and optimize passenger traffic, as well as improvement works in the T2 parking area. 35% of the airport’s travelers depart from the older terminal.
In the airfield area, maintenance and improvement work will be carried out on the cross runway, as well as a package of actions on the sea runway, basically resurfacing and lighting works that cost more than 100 million euros. On this runway, usually reserved for takeoffs, no budget is currently planned, as was already foreseen, for the controversial expansion towards the Ricarda lagoon. An intervention that both Aena and the Generalitat defend as key to increasing the airport’s capacity, but which is not expected to start until after 2030.
The Government’s approval of the investment package has reactivated the controversy generated by intervening in the airport’s surroundings. The Minister of Culture and spokesperson for Sumar, Ernest Urtasun, has again called on the European Commission to use its power to veto the runway expansion towards La Ricarda due to its environmental impact and warned that his party “will not stop” and will continue working to save the wetlands of the Llobregat delta. The area has the environmental protection label Natura 2000 and the DORA III plan is “contrary to the fight against climate change,” according to repeated statements by Sumar. Expanding the airport will mean an increase in tourism in areas that are already “too pressured.”
The consellera of Territory and spokesperson for the Govern, Sílvia Paneque, has welcomed the Government’s reaffirmation of its “commitment” to the expansion of Barcelona-El Prat airport with the approval of the Airport Regulation Document for the 2027-2030 period. In a press conference after the Consell Executiu, Paneque stated that DORA “crystallizes” the agreement that the Govern closed with the Ministry of Transport to expand Barcelona Airport by extending the third runway with all the “environmental guarantees.”
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The El Prat City Council is the main stronghold of the Comuns in Catalonia. Its mayor, Alba Bou, considers it “irresponsible” to invest in growing an infrastructure that worsens the effects of climate change.
Barcelona airport handled 57.4 million travelers last year and is nearing saturation. With the expansion project, it can raise its capacity ceiling above 70 million annual users.
The small and medium-sized business association Pimec considers it “worrying” that the DORA for the 2027-2031 period does not specify a structural solution to increase the capacity of Barcelona Airport. The competitiveness of the Catalan economy, the internationalization of SMEs, the attraction of investment and talent, and the connection with the main world markets “require having an airport with sufficient capacity” to be an international hub, says Pimec.
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