Catalan businesspeople refuse to give up on Aena's public investment to expand the third runway of Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport. They consider it a "vital infrastructure for the Catalan economy" and have vowed to ensure that all public administrations involved in this project find a minimum consensus to unblock it.
The employers' association Foment del Treball has just set up a commission with this objective: to recover the 1.7 billion euro investment for the airport expansion, which would create tens of thousands of jobs ---some 83,000 directly---.
Businesspeople believe that giving up on extending the third runway to turn it into an intercontinental platform is to give up on the progress that infrastructures bring and on the country's development, so that it can compete internationally. With this expansion, Barcelona Airport would go from 40 to 70 connections with capitals around the world.
Under the slogan Barcelona connected to the world by an intercontinental airport, the commission brings together more than twenty experts, led by the current president of the Chamber of Contractors of Works of Catalonia (CCOC), Lluís Moreno. It will start next week with the analysis, among others, of a technical document that gives viability to the installation of the third runway without causing a serious impact on the protected natural areas near the airport, as assured by the president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre, in recent statements.
The working group will bring together experts in airport matters, environmentalists, businesspeople from relevant sectors and the new economy, academic references, innovation, and the civil sphere, among others. They will work to ensure that a project to build a runway long enough to turn the airport into a platform connected to the world, which presents the minimum environmental impact and promotes decarbonization, can be included in Aena's five-year DORA plan ---which foresees 2.250 billion in investment until 2026---, as communicated by the employers' association this Monday.
Who's who in the new commission:
- Mar Alarcón, CEO Social Car
- Jordi Alberich, Vice President of the Institut Estudis Estratègics de Foment
- Santiago Balleste, President of AEBALL
- Cristian Bardají, Mobility Area Director of RACC
- Jordi Clos, President of the Barcelona Hoteliers Guild
- Anna Cornadó, President of the Infrastructure Commission of Foment
- Gerard Esteva, President of the Unió Federacions Esportives Catalunya
- Imma Estrada, Civil Engineer, Environmentalist, Corporate Director ESTEYCO
- Salvador Guillermo, Secretary of the Commission
- Enrique Lacalle, President Automobile Barcelona
- Ignacio Marull, Managing Partner of PwC in Catalonia
- Lluis Moreno, Bridges and Roads Engineer, President of the Commission, President of CCOC
- Pedro Nueno, Professor IESE
- Óscar Oliver Cristià, Expert consultant in aeronautical transport
- Xavier Panés, President CECOT
- Josep Piqué, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Editor and foreign policy consultant
- Monica Roca, President of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation
- Joan Rojas, Aeronautical Engineer
- Baldiri Ros, President of the Institut Agrícola Català Sant Isidre
- Jaume Roura, President Unió Patronal Metal·lúrgica
- Lluís Sala, Aeronautical Engineer, Former Operations Director of Barcelona-El Prat Josep Tarradellas Airport, Former Director of Girona-Costa Brava Airport
- Josep Sánchez Llibre, President of Foment
- Jordi Sargatal, Ornithologist Naturalist, General Director of Grup MASCORT
- David Tornos, Secretary General of Foment
- Eduard Torres, President Turisme de Barcelona
- Miguel Vicente, President of Tech Barcelona
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