The chairman and CEO of Aena, Maurici Lucena, announced on Tuesday that the drafting of the new technical master plan for Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airport, which will launch the expansion of this infrastructure, will be put out to tender "in the coming days".
Lucena has advanced that it is a "unique" document for "environmental reasons and because of the public controversy" caused by the expansion of the aerodrome.
In a session of the Matins Esade meetings, the president of the operator has detailed that the budget will rise to 4.45 million euros, instead of the usual half million, "because important technical advice is needed", and has said that the process will have a "maximum duration" of five years.
Approximately three million euros of the item will be allocated to "environmental modifications", since the project affects the area of La Ricarda, which is part of the Natura 2000 network.
The figure for the exit from the master plan is "much higher than usual" for this type of document, due to the complexity of the environmental process and the processing before the European Union, as specified by Lucena.
The revamp of the airport to improve its capacity will lengthen the sea runway by 500 metres and includes the creation of a new satellite terminal.
For this reason, Lucena has detailed that the budget will be raised to 4.45 million euros, instead of the usual half a million, "because important technical advice is needed" and has said that the process will have a "maximum duration" of five years.
Both the City Council of El Prat and the environmental movement have already expressed their rejection of the expansion project, a few days after the announcement made by the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa.
The European Union will only endorse the expansion of El Prat airport if the integrity of the protected natural areas around it is guaranteed. Specifically, they will give the go-ahead as long as "compensatory measures" are taken so that the current spaces in the Llobregat Delta that are affected by the new infrastructure are extended elsewhere.
This September, Aena already warned that the expansion of El Prat would be a "long process" and pointed out that the "bulk" of the investments would be made beyond DORA III (2027-2031). All this, after the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, announced that Aena will invest some 13,000 million euros in this period, of which 3,000 will go to Barcelona.
The reform of the infrastructure to improve its capacity involves extending the sea runway by 500 metres and creating a new satellite terminal. This expansion will affect two protected areas of the Llobregat Delta: La Ricarda, to the north, and El Remolar, to the south.
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