10 keys to the airport expansion

The expansion of Barcelona Airport announced last week has been accompanied by a flood of information and debate that has caused us to lose sight of certain elements that cannot be forgotten. The ones I have detected are these:

1. Is it necessary to have an airport that can handle very long-haul intercontinental flights? The answer is yes. Promoting the future options of the Barcelona and Catalan economies requires the ability to handle long-haul flights. The bulk of business activity has shifted so far to the Pacific and Indian Oceans that not participating is certifying our renunciation of improvements in prosperity for the future.

2. Is it necessary to have an airport that can handle very long-haul intercontinental flights? hub for connecting flights? I don't think so, because we don't have the space to multiply runways and terminals, which is essential in the hubs, and because we don't have any airlines that are willing to serve Barcelona to facilitate connections between flights. This Thursday it has been confirmed that Iberia, part of the IAG group, has no intention of doing so, given that it plans to focus on developing the hub Barajas, and the same group uses Level to deepen specialization low cost of El Prat. If there were any company that was committed to transforming Barcelona airport into a hub A sufficiently ambitious plan could only be to create an island off the coast, like in Osaka.

3. Do we need a long runway? We must remember that we have one, which cannot be used because the local residents have won every lawsuit they have filed against Aena. Couldn't their attitude be softened with sonic protection measures? I'm sure it could. In fact, something must have been done, if it turns out that the long runway is used for takeoffs during certain hours of the day and at specific times, and routinely for landings.

4. If the long runway were not used, it could be shortened and re-naturalized to compensate for the lengthening of the short runway. Since it is not even mentioned, it can be deduced that it is used enough to avoid wasting it. The question returns: is it inevitable to lengthen the current runway closest to the sea?

5. There's talk of billions of euros in investment. As was amply discussed four years ago, almost all of the investment is not for the runway, nor even for another terminal, but for the real estate development planned for Barcelona airport.

6. Will Barcelona and Catalonia benefit from this construction boom? It doesn't seem so. Aena holds the absolute majority of the state, and the surpluses always generated by Barcelona airport, along with Palma, which has the largest surplus, go to Aena's priorities, which are those of the state. With the latest available data, from ten years ago, this was Aena's redistributive function: to suck resources from Barcelona and Palma for the greater glory of Madrid airport and distribute them to all the others, which are in deficit. It's an increase in the fiscal deficit in action.

7. The problem remains the same as always: airport governance. All the small changes to the project don't hide the fact that the big change is still missing: putting Barcelona Airport at the service of the Barcelona and Catalonia regions.

8. We accept that increasing the number of very long-distance lines is essential for the economic and business development of Catalonia. But where will all the qualified personnel expected to be hired by new business investments, or all the entrepreneurs of the new knowledge economy and their families, live?

9. A radical improvement in the commuter rail system is essential to accommodate and provide housing for these new hires. It remains the greatest weakness of the Barcelona region's economy and the well-being of its citizens. Furthermore, it is the most unfulfilled promise by the Spanish governments, even by those who most promise to do so.

10. And what will happen to the mass tourism model we'd like to resize? We can't fool ourselves: the airport expansion will encourage it. We don't hesitate to use the powerful tool of increasing the tourist tax to reduce the excessive tourist demand we suffer and raise the resources to offset the excessive consumption of public goods and services caused by mass tourism.

In conclusion: it's fine to focus on very long-haul connections, but the proposal is very similar, with all the flaws, virtues, and distortions, to the one from 2021. The only thing that changes is a new promise to compensate for the impact on protected areas. Given that it's been promised for more than twenty-five years and not delivered, the skepticism of many is understandable.