The expansion of El Prat Airport demands seriousness. A lot of seriousness. There are two conflicting sensibilities or visions that can only be reconciled if we work with technical rigor and a genuine desire for consensus. It is legitimate to prioritize both economic progress, and therefore the well-being of the people, and respect for the environment in the context of the global climate crisis. Who can be against the country's economic progress and competitiveness? Who can be against the environment? Isla's government, with a PSC historically inclined toward growth and with the complicity of Aena and the Spanish executive, has decided to push ahead with the expansion without further delay. The decision has been made. It is a choice that seeks to be compatible with a certain sacrifice of the natural environment.
What we must now demand from Isla is a triple commitment. First, he must commit to exercising maximum care and dialogue to minimize this natural damage. The presence of environmentalist Jordi Sargatal in the government as Secretary of Ecological Transition should be a guarantee. However, the initial reaction of environmental experts and activists has been highly critical. Compensation for the runway extension, especially towards the Ricarda lagoon, must be provided with technical guarantees that have not been sufficiently explained. There is much to define and clarify. The precedent of the last expansion does not help: the promised compensation measures were never implemented. This time, European and citizen oversight will be stricter.
The second demand, equally relevant, has to do with the Catalan economic model, which, in principle, should benefit from an intercontinental airport. The expansion must be accompanied by a solid, comprehensive, medium- and long-term plan to transform the Catalan economy to achieve greater productivity, diversity, and quality: promoting a high-tech industry, boosting research and knowledge transfer, and attracting foreign capital and talent (and retaining its own). If the arrival of more visitors only means even more tourism and, therefore, more overcrowding, lower wages, more gentrification, and more housing problems, instead of progress and well-being, we will move toward a more tense and unequal society. A losing model.
The third requirement, in this case very directly linked to the equipment at El Prat, involves Aena's management, which, as we mentioned, must pivot on its own economic model. Aena will seek to put it at odds with its allies on the left. Thus, both politically and technically (nature, economic model, and management), many elements will have to be brought together to make the project a reality.
