Expanding the El Prat airport in Catalonia will be bad for the nation’s ecology and people.
Pablo Castaño is a Barcelona-based freelancer specialised in politics and the environment.
Cross-posted from the Green European Journal
June 10, 2025. The Catalan government announces a project aimed at expanding Barcelona’s El Prat Airport with an investment of 3.2 billion euros. The proposal – which has acquired the Spanish government’s stamp of approval – joins a roster of ambitious projects to expand air travel capacity in Europe’s major airports, including Madrid-Barajas, London’s Heathrow, Frankfurt airport, and a new airport in Lisbon.
In recent years, various proposals to expand El Prat Airport had surfaced in public debate but none had received official approval. However, the recent alignment of the Socialist Party (PSOE) in the national, regional, and Barcelona city governments has revived the project, which had been shelved since 2021 due to opposition from the then-regional government and Barcelona city council, as well as popular mobilisation.
The main drivers of the expansion are the Catalan business lobby and the major political parties, namely the PSOE and the Catalan nationalist Junts. On the other hand, the largest trade unions oscillate between ambiguity and support, while parties to the left of the PSOE, environmental movements, and a large part of Barcelona’s civil society remain fiercely opposed. The latter group took to the streets on 28 June to protest against El Prat’s enlargement – and has promised to continue resistance.
The Catalan government and the Spanish Airports and Air Navigation Authority (AENA, the public-private company that manages airports) hope to begin construction in 2030 and complete it by 2033. Yet in reality, what we have seen so far resembles the case of Heathrow Airport, where expansion was first proposed in 2009 but has yet to materialise in the face of fierce opposition from environmental groups, local residents, and some political parties. In fact, the coalition government between Conservatives and Liberals (2010-2015) cancelled the construction of Heathrow’s third runway – approved by the previous Labour government – due mostly to the opposition of residents and MPs from nearby towns, who worried about noise pollution. Current prime minister Keir Starmer has recently revived the project, citing expected positive economic outcomes.
In 2024, El Prat Airport, located about 15 kilometres from the centre of Barcelona, surpassed 50 million passengers – mostly tourists – and 182,000 tonnes of air cargo. More than 700 flights depart every day from El Prat, making it the sixth busiest airport in Europe. The Catalan government’s expansion plan includes building a new terminal and extending the third runway by 500 metres, with the stated aim of increasing long-haul flights, as larger aircraft require longer runways to land. In the words of Catalan President Salvador Illa, the goal is to turn El Prat into an “intercontinental hub”. The airport’s enlargement is expected to increase passenger numbers to around 70 million per year.
Adopting a rhetoric that frames cities as competing businesses, Illa has stated he does not want to “allow other hubs like Istanbul and Qatar to take advantage and steal this opportunity from Barcelona”. This is precisely the sort of argument used by Alan Rides, the CEO of West London Chamber of Commerce, to demand the construction of a new runway in Heathrow: “If Heathrow doesn’t expand to meet the demand, then airlines will take their trade to European Hub airports like Paris, Frankfurt, or Amsterdam.”
Increasing emissions
According to the Climate Emergency Declaration approved by the Barcelona city council in 2020, El Prat emits nearly eight million tonnes of CO2 and equivalent gases annually, more than double the total emissions of the city of Barcelona itself. Still, the Catalan government claims that increasing long-haul flights and airport capacity is compatible with reducing emissions, thanks to the development of clean fuel. However, the public research institute Barcelona Regional has calculated that the planned capacity increase would raise the airport’s CO₂ emissions by 33 per cent.
The government of Socialist Salvador Illa has, in theory, committed to halving Catalonia’s emissions by 2030 – a target that would be nearly impossible if El Prat is enlarged. Eva Vilaseca, a spokesperson for the Catalan Assembly for Ecosocial Transition, has told Infolibre that reviving the expansion was “outrageous”, warning: “We have a very narrow window to avoid exceeding 1.5 degrees of warming. The deadline is 2030, and this legislative term runs until 2028. Missing this opportunity is extremely worrying.”
In its Proposal for a Carbon Budget for Catalonia (2021-2045), the expert group on climate change advising the Catalan parliament calls for “no expansion or construction of projects and mega-projects with significant environmental impacts”. It also suggests imposing a ban on “domestic flights where there is a train alternative of under two and a half hours”. As journalist Manel Riu has noted in Crític, the Catalan Climate Change Law obliges the government to incorporate this expert committee’s recommendations – a mandate Salvador Illa is ignoring with his expansion proposal.
Furthermore, there are fears that El Prat’s expansion will have a negative impact on La Ricarda lagoon, a protected ecosystem that is part of the Natura 2000 network due to its high-value bird species and habitats. The lagoon and its surroundings are one of the most biodiverse areas in the Llobregat Delta, with over 540 identified species that also include endangered birds. The Catalan government has promised to offset the damage from the project, which would affect 27 hectares of protected wetlands, by enlarging the lagoon and improving water quality to aid ecosystem restoration. However, a report by the University of Barcelona states that it is impossible to fully reconstruct an ecosystem like La Ricarda, which would suffer irreversible damage if the project goes ahead.
Because it affects a Natura 2000 site, El Prat’s expansion requires approval from the European Commission, which has reminded Spain that ecological compensation measures promised in 2004 (when the third runway was built) remain pending. Since 2021, there has been an open infringement case for non-compliance against Spain, with Brussels warning it would not approve the new plan until outstanding compensations are completed. This is something the current Catalan government has pledged to address.
Yet, despite the Commission’s apparent firmness, the Habitats Directive allows the EU to authorise constructions that damage Natura 2000 sites if they are justified by “imperative reasons of overriding public interest”. Given that the current European Commission, which has been open to making deals with the far right, is weakening Green Deal requirements and other environmental and climate regulations, it seems unlikely it will block El Prat’s expansion to protect a wetland. And this sort of EU negligence is not unprecedented: In Frankfurt, massive protests against clearing forest areas to add a fourth runway to the airport failed to stop construction, which was completed in 2011. The German government accepted the destruction of valuable natural areas as collateral damage, and the Catalan and Spanish administrations seem set to follow the same path.
The tourism problem
President Illa has warned that El Prat airport is nearing capacity and argued that a larger infrastructure is needed “to remain a tourism leader”. However, the overtourism plaguing Barcelona and the Catalan coast is precisely one of the main arguments evoked by those who oppose expansion. In 2024, over 15 million people visited Barcelona, a city of fewer than 2 million inhabitants. Between January and July 2024 alone, Catalonia received more than 11 million tourists – a 10.5 per cent increase from the previous year. With 80 per cent arriving by plane, there is little doubt that a higher airport capacity would raise the number of tourists significantly: Barcelona Regional estimates an additional 10 million visitors per year.
74 per cent of Barcelona residents believe the city has reached its “tourism limit”. This view comes as no surprise, as mass tourism is driving up housing prices in Barcelona and other Catalan cities. Moreover, the tourism industry has also brought about significant environmental consequences due to emissions from planes and cruise ships, energy and water consumption, and waste production – all far higher among tourists than the city’s residents. And what’s more, the tourism sector offers worse working conditions than average (higher temporary employment rates and lower wages) and increases nuisances like noise and street overcrowding, particularly in a geographically small city like Barcelona. These adverse effects explain the growing street protests against overtourism in the Catalan capital. Last year, demonstrations against mass tourism in Barcelona sparked similar action around the world when protestors squirted visitors with water pistols.
In addition to the overcrowding of the city centre, the impact on the housing market is the most tangible negative consequence of the Catalan capital’s tourism market. In 2024, the average rent reached 1200 euros per month, an amount higher than the minimum wage. One of the reasons for this rise in property prices in Barcelona and other tourist areas of the country is the use of thousands of homes as tourist apartments or for short-term rentals, which evade the price regulations introduced by the Spanish parliament in 2023.
Growing discontent over the social and environmental harms of mass tourism has spread widely across Spain in recent years, challenging a long-standing dominant narrative – pushed by major political parties and the media – that tourism should not be criticised since it brings wealth to the country. Since 2024, massive demonstrations have taken place in various locations, especially in the Canary Islands, an archipelago that continues to have one of the lowest income levels in Spain despite (or perhaps because of) its booming tourism industry, and where locals are also facing soaring rents and environmental degradation.
With Catalan authorities seemingly resolute to press ahead with the expansion of El Prat, the issue of mass tourism will be one of the key political battlegrounds between the defenders and the opponents of the project.
The Economic Growth Imperative
The Catalan government and business leaders have tried to justify El Prat’s expansion by arguing that it will lead to economic growth. President Illa declared at the project’s launch that it was “a great day for Catalonia’s competitiveness in the coming decades”, even claiming that “all Catalan businesses and their infrastructures need an international airport that represents a leap forward”. Yet in Spain, less than one per cent of goods are transported by air, and the airport already has numerous international connections.
Foment del Treball Nacional, the main Catalan employers’ organisation, has proposed various options over the years for extending the airport – including building a runway over the sea – and published triumphalist reports on the supposed urgency of the project. According to the business lobby, the planned expansion would boost Catalonia’s GDP by “almost 2 per cent”.
Meanwhile, the region’s largest trade union, Comisiones Obreras, has taken an ambiguous stance: while criticising the lack of “social dialogue” before the project’s announcement, the union, lured by the prospect of job creation, does not oppose the expansion. This aligns with Foment del Treball’s forecasts that “tens of thousands of new jobs” will be created if the runway is extended and the number of flights increased. Similarly, business groups and major trade unions in the UK are among the leading advocates for Heathrow’s third runway. Starmer’s government has said that it could create 100.000 jobs.
In both London and Barcelona, the promise of economic growth and reduced unemployment – structurally high in Spain – seems to remain effective in rallying key political and economic actors behind a project that contradicts the very climate and environmental agendas they claim to support.
Yet alternatives exist. The Sustainable and Safe Mobility Foundationestimates that with 2 billion euros – less than the projected cost of expanding El Prat – numerous train and tram lines could be built across Catalonia, improving low-emission connectivity and creating jobs. More than a quarter of Catalonia’s population uses trains or metros daily, taking 2.2 million trips per day. This is a far more democratic use than air travel, as Sweden’s Linnaeus University found that the wealthiest 1 per cent of the world population generate half of aviation-related emissions. Activist Eva Vilaseca proposes a broader alternative: “a 10-year productive conversion plan for Catalonia’s economy, with an ecological transition fund worth 10 per cent of GDP. We propose investing in rail infrastructure, which would also create jobs with a future,” she told Infolibre.
Corporate profiteering
Promoting economic growth and turning Barcelona into an international hub with more long-haul flights are the stated arguments of politicians and business leaders. However, to understand why this investment is prioritised over alternatives (such as rail or promoting low-emissions economic sectors), we must look at the structure of the Spanish airport sector.
In Spain, airports are managed by AENA, a public-private company that is 51 per cent controlled by state-owned air navigation manager Enaire, with the remaining 49 per cent in the hands of investment funds, banks, and other private shareholders. Infrastructure investments allow increased fees on plane tickets, translating into immediate profits for shareholders. The prospect of higher earnings for AENA investors is absent from public debate, but it is one of the most powerful drivers of the push to expand El Prat, especially for the business lobby. In 2024 alone, AENA posted a record profit of more than 1.9 billion euros.
A report by the Barcelona city council’s Infrastructure Advisory Committee – supportive of the airport’s enlargement5 – admits that the number of long-haul flights could be increased without extending the third runway, by allowing more large aircraft to use the existing longest runway. However, the committee dismisses this option due to the extra noise it would provoke in nearby residential areas. It is worth noting that the most affected areas are governed by the Socialist Party, a major advocate of expansion.
As the case of Heathrow shows, local politics should not be underestimated in debates over mega-infrastructure. Even in Frankfurt, where a fourth runway was built despite mass demonstrations in 2011, civil resistance continues. Protests resumed in 2024, this time focusing on emissions rather than noise, and led to the cancellations of more than 100 flights.
A European frenzy
European air traffic is projected to grow by 52 per cent by 2050, according to Eurocontrol. Clean fuels currently account for less than 0,1 per cent of all aviation fuels consumed, and even the most optimistic forecasts envision a share of 2-4 per cent for sustainable fuel by 2030. Another way to reduce aviation-related emissions would be to improve aircraft efficiency, but according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), even a potential improvement of 20 per cent in efficiency will be outpaced by growth in activity. Therefore, increased air traffic – brought about by the planned airport enlargement – will inevitably mean more emissions. Besides, aviation is excluded from national emission reduction targets under the Paris Agreement, a special regime enabling the sector’s uncontrolled growth.
The expansion of El Prat Airport exemplifies this dynamic. The Catalan and Spanish governments – which elsewhere maintain green rhetoric – have embraced a proposal pushed by the business lobby and guided by profit-seeking for AENA shareholders and the tourism sector. In London, the business coalition backing Heathrow’s expansion is led by engineering and freight firms. The continent-wide airport expansion fever reflects the fossil fuel economy’s enduring influence over national and European economic policies. The Catalan government’s plan to extend El Prat’s third runway, cloaked in rhetoric of infinite economic growth, prioritises corporate profits over climate action and biodiversity protection. And the ongoing airport fever reveals the fragility of European governments’ climate commitments when it comes to imposing limits on the aviation sector.
In Barcelona, the coalition of political and business elites will be a formidable opponent for social movements opposing the expansion. However, the final project has not even obtained the necessary approval yet. Past airport expansions show these are slow, decades-long processes, giving opponents multiple opportunities to derail the project through action ranging from street protests to legal challenges. The long-delayed Heathrow case suggests El Prat’s expansion may also prove more complicated than its backers hope.
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