Barcelona Airport to become an ‘intercontinental hub’
In most other European countries there might be a rivalry between the airport serving the capital and the main provincial one servicing the principal commercial city. And especially so when the provincial one also serves a distinct region that many would like to see be a separate country in its own right.
But not in Spain, where Madrid and Barcelona airports are under common ownership. AENA has recently proposed capital expenditure of EUR1.6 billion and EUR1.7 billion for those airports respectively, and in the case of Barcelona the objective seems to be to turn it into an alternative intercontinental hub in Spain.
But is that really necessary as Madrid's Barajas Airport already serves that function? The rationale is not clear.
Nor is it certain that what the politicians envisage to become "the greenest airport in Europe" can actually be expanded, because doing so would create a real, live, green issue.
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