This is the second chapter of our chronicles on the history of aviation in Barcelona. Today we tell how the city, in a not-so-distant time, hosted three airfields that, like pieces of a puzzle, came together to give life to the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport.
Every time a plane arrives at the runways of this airport, a new line is written in a story that began more than a century ago. In 1916, the first aircraft flew in the lands that today form the heart of the airport complex, but before reaching there, Barcelona experienced a fascinating creation of airfields: La Volatería, the French field, and the Canudas Aerodrome. From their rivalry, their dreams, and their fusion, the airport that today connects the city with the world was born.
La Volatería
Aviation arrived in Barcelona in 1910, a year that marked the first flight in Spain. The setting was not an aerodrome, but a hippodrome: Casa Antúnez, in what is today the Zona Franca promenade, next to the coast. The horse racing oval was transformed into an improvised airfield, witnessing exhibitions that amazed a Barcelona that dreamed of conquering the sky.
By then, airplanes were an almost magical novelty, an invention whose usefulness was still being explored. The First World War (1914-1919) showed its warlike potential, but Barcelona, outside the conflict, opted for civil aviation. In 1916, the provisional nature of the hippodrome was left behind, and the city inaugurated its first airfield: La Volatería, named after the poultry farms that were in its surroundings.
The company Pujol Comabella y Compañía promoted this leap, followed by Talleres Hereter, which built aircraft and trained pilots. In 1919, La Volatería took another step by hosting the first commercial flights: Latécoère's mail planes, the germ of the mythical Aéropostale. Iberia took off here in 1927; Lufthansa connected Europe with Spain, and in 1921 the field passed into the hands of the central government, becoming the Aeronaval de la Marina de Guerra, a story that deserves its own chapter.
The French field
While La Volatería was bustling, the Compagnie Latécoère, a pioneer of airmail and which had started from there, sought its own space in Barcelona, a key stop on its route between France and Morocco. Thus was born the French field, a small airfield where planes loaded with postal sacks ---and some brave passenger--- made a stopover. Over time, Latécoère transformed into Aéropostale, a project that dreamed of uniting France, Africa, and South America in an unprecedented air network.
Through this corner of Barcelona paraded illustrious figures of the 1920s, from heads of state to adventurers, attended with the hospitality of Aéropostale. The wife of a station manager won the hearts of travelers with her homemade dishes, served during the breaks of those epic flights. In 1933, Air France inherited the airfield and renamed it Campo de la compañía Air France, operating it until 1938, when Barcelona's history took another turn.
The Canudas Airfield
In 1923, with two airfields already in operation, pilot Josep Canudas i Busquets dreamed higher. Convinced that Barcelona should have an airfield worthy of its European ambition, he promoted the creation of a third: the Canudas Airfield. This space became a symbol of modernity, home to the Aeródromo de Barcelona SL society, dedicated to pilot training, aircraft maintenance, and air services.
Its runways filled with activity with photography flights, advertising, and aerial baptisms that made Barcelonans dream. The 1920s roared, and aviation was the emblem of a city looking to the future. Like La Volatería, Canudas passed into public hands, first to the Generalitat and then, after agreements with the Government of the Republic and the City Council, it became the seed of the unified airport that Barcelona longed for. The memory of Canudas lives on in the current Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport, and one of its VIP lounges is dedicated to this pioneer of aviation in Barcelona.
In 1936, everything seemed ready to merge the three fields into a large aeronautical project. But history, capricious, had other plans, and the following three years would change the destiny of the city and its sky.