Barcelona El Prat seeks to evolve into significant hub

Inspired by, and perhaps a bit envious of, its successful larger sibling Madrid Barajas, Barcelona El Prat is embracing a new strategy to develop into a "reference" hub with the support of a considerable €5.1 billion ($6.3 billion) investment by its owner and operator Aena.

The investment includes an extension of the main runway (07L/25R) to 3,352 m. (10,997 ft.), a new third runway (07R/25L, 2,660 m.), a new control tower and a stunning passenger terminal designed by Ricardo Bofill that was inaugurated in June 2009 and has operated for more than a year without "any [major] incidents," according to Aena. It admitted there have been two "minor outages" of the automated baggage processing system but stressed they were nothing compared to the problems encountered by some other airports or T5 at London Heathrow.

The system, supplied by Vanderlande Industries & Dragados and controlled by UFIS Airport Innovation's BRAINS (Baggage Routing and Allocation System) software system, can handle up to 10,500 bags per hr. and has a processing time of 6 min. per bag. "The baggage handling facility combined with the increased passenger terminal capacity is allowing for an easy [flight] transfer," the airport operator told ATW’s Airports Today during a briefing in the new facility. T1 is the new terminal, while the previously labeled Terminals A, B and C have been clustered into ”T2."

T1 has an annual passenger capacity of 25 million, lifting BCN's total to 55 million passengers annually. A further expansion with a new satellite terminal is planned to be finished by 2012, which will raise the capacity to 70 million. The airport can handle up to 90 flight movements per hr.

Aena is keen to highlight its success in attracting several new intercontinental flights from BCN: Qatar Airways commenced a daily service from Doha on June 7, Air Canada launched a seasonal thrice-weekly service from Montreal and Toronto June 3 and Pakistan International Airlines on June 2 began a weekly service from Lahore and one from Islamabad and Karachithat continues on from BCN to Chicago O'Hare aboard a 777. Its largest operator, Vueling Airlines, started connecting passengers and their luggage through the airport July 5 (ATW Daily News, June 3).

By connecting its 43 routes to/from BCN, Vueling is offering 418 new city-pairs through its home base, which it expects will result in an additional 1 million passengers next year and gradually increase in the years after. "With our new 'connect' function, Vueling upgrades Barcelona Airport to an important connecting hub," CEO Alex Cruz told ATW, noting that the "transfer passenger" project initially was conceived prior to the merger between Vueling and Clickair and that the "new terminal, the airport's very high punctuality and the excellence of the new baggage handling facilities were key factors that contributed to the viability of the project." Vueling only connects within its own network; connecting with long-haul carriers "is currently not being considered," Cruz said. "The complexity would be twice as much. Additionally, there would be issues of differing expectations."

BCN has been impacted heavily by the financial crisis and the high-speed train from/to Madrid and last year handled 27.3 million passengers, down 9.7% compared to 2008 when it handled nearly 33 million. Despite the loss in passenger throughput, it maintained its position as the ninth-busiest airport in the world in Airports Council International's ranking of busiest airports in Europe. Commercial flight movements in 2009 fell 13.3% to 276,449.