Madrid Barajas Airport expansion to cost EUR2.4 billion; profitable AENA gets airport charges boost

There are few better examples of countries that are putting the COVID-19 pandemic behind them than Spain, where the airport operator AENA will probably record more passengers in 2023 than in 2019, both holistically and at its principal Madrid Barajas Airport.

Barajas will now be further developed, with a EUR2.4 billion investment into two projects covering all the terminals, although no new ones will be built.

Madrid is in an unusual position for a capital city of a large European country, in that there is only one commercial airport serving it and that is unlikely to change. But physically, Barajas is one of the largest airports in Europe, with space to expand.

The parent AENA has strong finances, and has been buoyed recently by dispensation within the law that governs it to increase charges to airlines in 2024 - those charges having originally been frozen as part of the privatisation process eight years ago.