some thoughts about the new El Prat airport configuration
status:draft
disclaimer: i'm not an expert on this topic, just a fan of transportation systems
--
Since I'm quite interested in mass transportation systems on of the things I have been following as of late are the developments of the El Prat International Airport, which for those who don't know is Barcelona's main airport. Currently air traffic is increasing everywhere. With the arrival of low-cost airlines this increment is now larger than ever, particularly for airports that are major destinations of tourists. This applies pretty well to El Prat.
Today El Prat is a pretty saturated airport. Last year it did handle abouy 27 million passangers and this year it is expected to handle over 30 million. The airport itself is quite close to the city - only 3 kilometers away - which gives it a lot of potential. But it has also some problems: particularly, it is located in a well populated area (gava, castelldefels, and el prat de llobregat) and the - related - fact that spacial expansion is hardly possible. In addition, area around the airport includes a natural protected zone (the delta del llobregat). Even so, the airport is currently undergoing a large transformation with the addition of a new runway and the construction of a new terminal. With this new infrastructure it is supposed to be capable of handling up to 55 million passangers.
Before 2004, the airport operated in a pretty unefficient configuration. It had two runways: 7L/25R and 2/20. 2/20 crosses 7L/25R diagonally meaning that simultaneous traffic was not possible. 7L/25R was normally used for landing while 2/20 was used for takeoff. When landing, planes would fly over the Zona Franca - an industrial complex just to the south of Montjuic. For takeoff 2/20 would lead them just to the sea. This configuration has minimal noise impact over habitated areas, but it has the aforementional problems of non-parallel operation. In addition, 2/20 is a small runway. Large aircraft cannot use it for takeoff, they have to use 7L/25R, which btw has now been expanded to be 3.7km (while 2/20 is only 2.6km). In 2004 a new runway was opened: 7R/25L. This runway, as the name suggests, is parallel to 7L/25R. It is also quite smaller (2.7km) having been built in a more constrained area. The introduction of this runway enabled parallel operation and therefore a big increase in traffic. Since then the new configuration has been to use 7R/25L for landing (direction barcelona) and 7L/25R for takeoff (direction gava-castelldefels). But the gava-castelldefels area is inhabited by around 170.000 people. This has caused a lot of problems to the neighbours, which have been demonstrating and occasionally blocking airport access (directing their problems towards the airport users btw). On the long term this configuration was to be modified again. As told, there is a new terminal under construction. This terminal lies between the two runways. This enables an even more efficient configuration which consists in the independent operation of both runways, so each terminal (old and new) could focus on the traffic of a particular runway (currently aircraft landing in 7R/25L have to taxi to the old terminal for a couple of minutes - crossing the long runway in the process). However, this configuration would even increase the noise problems over the populated area.
After months of negotiation between AENA and the town councils a new configuration has been approved. From now on runways will again have a special purpose: 7L/25R will be used for landing (as happened before 2004) and 7R/25L will be used for takeoff. Takeoff direction will be towards gava/castelldefels, but the planes will immediately turn towards their left (ie, towards the sea) so to avoid the habitated area. I wonder if this is really going to help that much. From the airport configuration point of view this means that taxing before takeoff will be quite long for passengers of the old terminal. Not such a big problem. On the other side, 7R/25L is not a large runway (2.7km) which means that large aircraft will need to continue using the old runway. I don't have the data of which aircraft this comprises but I guess it would be A340's, B-777's, B-747's and the likes, but you don't see them to often in Barcelona anyway. I wonder also if this has any effect on the prediction that the airport would be able to handle 55 million passengers by 2008. I have yet to see an announcement regarding this.
How much is the airport really going to grow? From a geographic point of view, this airport serves a population of over 5 million people living in the barcelona province. Add all the tourism and the requirements problaby grow a lot. There is already speculation that the airport will be too small again within 15-20 years. What's will be the next step? A completely new airport is probably not the solution. Very expensive and where is enough space anyway? Already the first voices have been heard suggesting that new runways be built over the sea. I only know of two airports built like this: kansai international airport and the new nagoya airport. Both are located in Japan. I've always thought that must be increadibly expensive. In addition these airports tend to sink a couple of centimeters every year so maintainance is a little more costly. All this is very speculative. Let's see what's going to happen.
I didn't cover quite a couple of issues regarding the airport in this entry. I tried to focus on the runway configurations. Maybe a different time I'll say something about my thoughts on airport access issues, where also a lot of things are supposed to change :)
hasta pronto
disclaimer: i'm not an expert on this topic, just a fan of transportation systems
--
Since I'm quite interested in mass transportation systems on of the things I have been following as of late are the developments of the El Prat International Airport, which for those who don't know is Barcelona's main airport. Currently air traffic is increasing everywhere. With the arrival of low-cost airlines this increment is now larger than ever, particularly for airports that are major destinations of tourists. This applies pretty well to El Prat.
Today El Prat is a pretty saturated airport. Last year it did handle abouy 27 million passangers and this year it is expected to handle over 30 million. The airport itself is quite close to the city - only 3 kilometers away - which gives it a lot of potential. But it has also some problems: particularly, it is located in a well populated area (gava, castelldefels, and el prat de llobregat) and the - related - fact that spacial expansion is hardly possible. In addition, area around the airport includes a natural protected zone (the delta del llobregat). Even so, the airport is currently undergoing a large transformation with the addition of a new runway and the construction of a new terminal. With this new infrastructure it is supposed to be capable of handling up to 55 million passangers.
Before 2004, the airport operated in a pretty unefficient configuration. It had two runways: 7L/25R and 2/20. 2/20 crosses 7L/25R diagonally meaning that simultaneous traffic was not possible. 7L/25R was normally used for landing while 2/20 was used for takeoff. When landing, planes would fly over the Zona Franca - an industrial complex just to the south of Montjuic. For takeoff 2/20 would lead them just to the sea. This configuration has minimal noise impact over habitated areas, but it has the aforementional problems of non-parallel operation. In addition, 2/20 is a small runway. Large aircraft cannot use it for takeoff, they have to use 7L/25R, which btw has now been expanded to be 3.7km (while 2/20 is only 2.6km). In 2004 a new runway was opened: 7R/25L. This runway, as the name suggests, is parallel to 7L/25R. It is also quite smaller (2.7km) having been built in a more constrained area. The introduction of this runway enabled parallel operation and therefore a big increase in traffic. Since then the new configuration has been to use 7R/25L for landing (direction barcelona) and 7L/25R for takeoff (direction gava-castelldefels). But the gava-castelldefels area is inhabited by around 170.000 people. This has caused a lot of problems to the neighbours, which have been demonstrating and occasionally blocking airport access (directing their problems towards the airport users btw). On the long term this configuration was to be modified again. As told, there is a new terminal under construction. This terminal lies between the two runways. This enables an even more efficient configuration which consists in the independent operation of both runways, so each terminal (old and new) could focus on the traffic of a particular runway (currently aircraft landing in 7R/25L have to taxi to the old terminal for a couple of minutes - crossing the long runway in the process). However, this configuration would even increase the noise problems over the populated area.
After months of negotiation between AENA and the town councils a new configuration has been approved. From now on runways will again have a special purpose: 7L/25R will be used for landing (as happened before 2004) and 7R/25L will be used for takeoff. Takeoff direction will be towards gava/castelldefels, but the planes will immediately turn towards their left (ie, towards the sea) so to avoid the habitated area. I wonder if this is really going to help that much. From the airport configuration point of view this means that taxing before takeoff will be quite long for passengers of the old terminal. Not such a big problem. On the other side, 7R/25L is not a large runway (2.7km) which means that large aircraft will need to continue using the old runway. I don't have the data of which aircraft this comprises but I guess it would be A340's, B-777's, B-747's and the likes, but you don't see them to often in Barcelona anyway. I wonder also if this has any effect on the prediction that the airport would be able to handle 55 million passengers by 2008. I have yet to see an announcement regarding this.
How much is the airport really going to grow? From a geographic point of view, this airport serves a population of over 5 million people living in the barcelona province. Add all the tourism and the requirements problaby grow a lot. There is already speculation that the airport will be too small again within 15-20 years. What's will be the next step? A completely new airport is probably not the solution. Very expensive and where is enough space anyway? Already the first voices have been heard suggesting that new runways be built over the sea. I only know of two airports built like this: kansai international airport and the new nagoya airport. Both are located in Japan. I've always thought that must be increadibly expensive. In addition these airports tend to sink a couple of centimeters every year so maintainance is a little more costly. All this is very speculative. Let's see what's going to happen.
I didn't cover quite a couple of issues regarding the airport in this entry. I tried to focus on the runway configurations. Maybe a different time I'll say something about my thoughts on airport access issues, where also a lot of things are supposed to change :)
hasta pronto
posted by miki at
5:12 AM
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