Spain’s largest airport is set for a major £2bn expansion as a record number of people visit the country, placing more pressure on its infrastructure.
The new expansion will see Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas International Airport designed to help accommodate the dramatic revival in air travel since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, the expansion will also help Spain grow economically as more planes will be able to land and more passengers will be able to pass through its doors.
Speaking about the expansion to El Diario, the president of AENA, Maurici Lucena explained the benefits of the expansion of one of Europe’s largest airports.
He said: “The record figures in air transport are fundamental for the economic and social development of Spain. We should all congratulate ourselves for them.”
President of Spanish airline Iberia, Fernando Candela added: “It will allow it [the airport] to play in the first division of major European hubs.”
The beginning of the expansion was announced by President of Spain Pedro Sanchez.
In a speech earlier this year, he said it would see a “strong growth in capacity and routes, the creation of thousands of direct and indirect jobs and the generation of wealth”.
President Sanchez also praised the resilience of Spain’s tourist industry after it experienced a rebound in 2023. La Moncloa reported that he said the country was “maintaining its world leadership”.
He added that Spain’s public services also offered tourists “security, peace of mind, and confidence”, as well as an “excellent public health system”.
While the airport’s expansion is welcome news to businesses, it is facing opposition from local residents who are concerned about the environmental consequences.
Esther Moraga, who lives in nearby San Fernando de Henares, said that the disruption from noise is sometimes so bad she has to stop speaking to others.
Ms Moraga told local media: “The noise is what worries us the most, we already feel it now.
“The sound meters are placed in remote areas so that they do not interfere with the motorway or the train, but if they came to our houses they would realise that the noise is on top of us.
“Sometimes I have to stop the explanations when we are with a group in the open air because we simply can’t hear each other. And when they fly low, sometimes you have to stop talking.”
Head of transport at Ecologists in Action Pablo Munoz claimed the decision to grow the airport was “incompatible” with Spain’s “commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” established in the environmental plan.
