Barcelona El Prat: Europe's leading airport for LCCs a battleground in fight for business travellers

easyJet's recent announcement that it plans to open a new base at Barcelona El Prat Airport from Feb-2016 provides an opportunity to examine the recent traffic history of Europe's leading LCC airport. Barcelona is home to IAG subsidiary Vueling, the biggest operator at the airport and Europe's third largest LCC. Vueling's nearest competitors here are Ryanair and easyJet, ranked first and second among European LCCs.

The narrative at Barcelona remains substantially about short and medium haul and the main protagonists continue to be Europe's leading LCCs. However, there is an emerging sub-plot, albeit one that remains in the background for now. This concerns the global super-connectors, who aim to turn Barcelona's paucity of long haul destinations to their advantage.

Traffic growth at Barcelona was strong before the global financial crisis, but slumped in 2008 and 2009. It bounced back quickly in 2010 and 2011, before the demise of Spanair interrupted the resumption of rapid growth. After various twists and turns in the traffic growth path of the three leading airlines at Barcelona, all three now look ready to battle hard, particularly for business passengers.