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T4 Aeropuerto de Barajas
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This Spanish city will soon be home to Europe’s biggest airport

The goal is to increase capacity to a whopping 90 million passengers per year

Llorenç Julià Ruiz
Liv Kelly
Written by
Llorenç Julià Ruiz
Translated by
Liv Kelly
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The Adolog Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport is a vital aviation hub for Spain, currently welcoming around 50 million passengers and 352,000 flights each year. However, in some ambitious plans to vastly increase its capacity, it looks like the airport is in for a makeover. 

Aena, the managing company that’s also in charge of El Prat airport in Barcelona, is planning an expansion of the airport to increase its passenger capacity. There are hopes of making it the largest airport in the EU, with a capacity of a whopping 90 million people per year. 

The airport is already the biggest and busiest in Spain, and provides the city with a tonne of economic support, contributing 9.7 percent of Madrid’s GDP. 

The project is not earmarked to begin until 2031, but has a budget of around 2.4 billion and should create around 60,000 jobs. Planners are hoping the airport will function as a crucial connection point between America and Asia, as well as creating an Asian ‘hub’ in the new terminals one, two and three. 

But flying isn’t the only way to get to this cracker of a city – it was recently announced that the Madrid to Lisbon sleeper, which was discontinued in 2020, could be making a comeback

No matter how you get there, Madrid is jam-packed full of glorious tapas, fantastic exhibitions and some brilliant things to do

Did you see that the cost of visiting Paris is set to soar next year?

Plus: these are all the strikes in European airports you should know about right now

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