For the fourth year in a row, Barcelona-El Prat airport has found itself immersed, at the start of the summer holidays, in serious problems. On this occasion it's labour problems which harm the airport's image as the country's flagship infrastructure and Catalonia's image as a point of entry and departure for an enormous volume of international passengers, and also has a decisive effect on the Catalan economy, for which tourism is vital. And the question is always the same: How is it possible that the problems, of any kind, always affect El Prat when the Spanish airport system is so centralised in terms of decision-making? What does it matter whether it's called Barcelona-El Prat or Josep Tarradellas as it was officially baptised by Pedro Sánchez's government? The name doesn't matter, certainly, nor has it brought anything with it in terms of investment.
On this occasion, it's Iberia Handling ground staff who have gone on strike. And why not at Madrid-Barajas, Palma, Malaga or any other aerodrome? With respect to Madrid, it's quite simple: Iberia has 2000 workers for every 1000 operations at Barcelona whilst in Madrid the ratio is 7000 for every 1300. The situation is that simple, and incomprehensible, and it makes the employees' stress perfectly justified. And although the conflict was foreshadowed a year ago, this situation has been reached to a large extent due to the company's apathy. Given this, it could seem strange that Barcelona airport is the one which offers the largest share of the airport operator's profits.
The story of the last few years could not be more terrifying. In summer 2016, Vueling was involved in some of the worst scenes of chaos seen in the airport. Overbooking, interminable delays, cancellations, a lack of information for hours... The company found itself obliged to reorganise its entire senior management that October following the errors committed and the profound malaise they caused.
In 2017, the problems started earlier, during Holy Week, with customs collapsed due to new passport checks. The problems stretched on for weeks and also affected the summer holidays. In total, weeks of hours and hours of queues and a general collapse which ended with the sending of new machines and increasing the number of agents on passport control. Also another year of operational chaos for Vueling.
Last summer it was air traffic controllers in Marseille along with the lack of controllers in Barcelona which ended up causing a bottleneck in the control centre in Gavà from where air traffic flying over eastern Spain is controlled. For months, the airport was among the ten with the most delays on the continent and in the odd month, like May, it even reached first place on the ranking.
In the coming weeks, El Prat will see how the current conflict develops, to be joined by a strike of security guards from the 9th. It's not the first time that the management of national infrastructure in Catalonia should end up causing an unsustainable situation. The airport and Renfe-Rodalies trains end up being a torture for the public and doing enormous harm to the Catalan economy. It would be worth it for the political parties and business organisations to say "enough" once and for all. This situation has been unbearable for too long; a situation which has nothing to do with independence, but a lot to do with a state which has abandoned Catalans' interests. It is, plainly and simply, that.