Barcelona airport- Spain’s second Largest Airport
Barcelona airport is located in the municipalities of EI Prat de Llobregat and is commonly known as EI Prat airport. In Spain EI Par airport is the second largest airport. For spanair and vueling, it is considered as a main hub. Flights to South Asia, North America and Latin America are the main focus of Barcelona Airport. The first route to Iberia was in 1927 and it service to Madrid cuatro vientos airport.
In 1948 using the Lockheed constellation, the first overseas services was provided by pan American world airways to New York. The first runway was constructed in 1948 while the second was build perpendicularly to the previous in 1948-1952. In order to accommodate passengers terminals and taxi ways were constructed. In 1965, a new control tower was constructed. The air shuttle service by Iberia became operational on 4th November 1970. The service was provided between Barcelona and Madrid-Barajas. In 1977, 5 million passengers can be handled by the airport, per year. Between late seventies and early nineties major developments were made in airport for modernization and expansion. It included the construction of new terminals so that direct access to air crafts could be possible by jet ways.
A control tower designed by Ricardo Bofill Levi was built in 1996. On March 23, 2009 the first flight from Lahore to Barcelona was made via Pakistan international airlines. Airport is mostly used to handle European and domestic flights and it is not capable of intercontinental connections. There are many low-cost air lines operating from the Barcelona air port. These includes Vueling( mergence of two vueling and clickair), wizair and easy jet. There are 64 boarding gates, 3 runways, 2 terminals and 268 check-in counters. Also, there are some under construction projects running concerned with the development of new terminals and control tower. With the successful completion of these projects, the airport will have the capability of handling 55 million travelers, ever year.