Aena digs in. Aena president, Maurici Lucena, on Thursday once again shut the door on any real transfer or co-management of Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airport and, at most, agreed to study for Catalonia an body similar to the Basque one: bilateral, yes, but only consultative and without decision-making capacity. The airport network will continue to be managed from the center, with unified criteria, and communities can be heard, but they do not decide.Aena defends that the integrated management of the Spanish airport network allows for the coordination of investments, tariffs, operation, and planning of the whole, and recalls that 49% of its capital is in private hands, so any transfer of management would open a political, regulatory, and probably judicial conflict.From the directive logic, the argument is understandable. From the territorial logic, it is not. Today, an airport can no longer be seen merely as a transport infrastructure. It is a first-rate economic lever. It orders tourist flows, connects business ecosystems, influences conferences, investment, talent, and international projection. And all of this impacts a specific territory, not an administrative abstraction. The airport belongs to a network, but its effects fall on a determined city, region, and economic model.Here Catalonia is entirely right to demand more than just being heard. If the Generalitat wants to guide its tourism policy, it needs to intervene on one of its main entry channels. A territorial policy for tourism or the promotion of certain international markets cannot be designed without impacting the infrastructure that conditions these movements.Centralized management can make sense in aspects such as security, air navigation, network technical coordination, or regulatory homogeneity. Nobody disputes this. But the economic impact of an airport should be decided by its regional government. This is where the Spanish model goes wrong.Barcelona Airport needs a strategic direction linked to the interests of Catalonia. The role that Barcelona should play as a business, trade fair, and scientific hub corresponds to Catalans.If a territory bears the urban, environmental, economic, and social costs of an airport, it must have the capacity to intervene in its orientation. Today's economic Europe increasingly operates through metropolitan regions, logistical hubs, and territorial production systems. Continuing to treat airports as a piece moved solely from Madrid reflects an old idea of power and an overly centralized vision of the economy.
