Spain presents €13 billion airport investment plan for next five years

The Spanish government has unveiled an investment plan that will allocate €12.9 billion to the expansion of the country’s airport capacity during the period 2027-2031. The bulk of this investment, nearly €10 billion, will go to projects directly linked to regulated aeronautical operations, with the remainder going to commercial activities. 

Another €1.5 billion included within this investment package has been earmarked for technology and sustainability-enhancing investments. 

The announcement was made by the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, during a visit to Alicante Airport (ALC) on September 18, 2025.  

The details of this project will be included in an official plan called “Documento de Regulación Aeroportuaria” (DORA III) which assesses the investment needs for the entire Spanish airport system on a five-year basis. Almost all of Spain’s airports and all the major international gateways are managed by one single operator, Aena, which is s majority-owned by the government, despite being a publicly listed entity. 

The largest projects within this initiative, receiving nearly half of the total investment, will be the expansion of Barcelona-El Prat (BCN) and Madrid-Barajas (MAD) airports.  

Barcelona Airport, which will be allocated €3.2 billion, is to have one of its runways extended by 600 meters, in order to have more operational flexibility to handle wide-body aircraft, plus an additional satellite terminal built from scratch. Work on these projects is expected to start some time towards 2030.  

This project, the main elements of which were already outlined by the Catalan government earlier in 2025, has already been under discussion for some time.  

While the current facilities are approaching their theoretical 60 million-passenger capacity limit (Barcelona Airport handled more than 55 million passengers in 2024), the proposed expansion has met some degree of public opposition, particularly from environmental organizations and some segments of the political spectrum. 

Madrid-Barajas Airport, in turn, will receive €2.4 billion to expand its capacity to 90 million passengers per year. This project contemplates improvements in all of the airports’ current terminals, €1.7 billion to expand the flagship T4 and T4 Satellite terminals and €700 million to upgrade the older T1, T2 and T3 terminals. 

Other major investments will be made in expanding the capacity of airport terminals in areas that see a significant volume of tourism-related traffic. 

On the Mediterranean coast, substantial investments will be made to expand the passenger terminals at Malaga (AGP), with €1.5 billion, Alicante (ALC) with €1.1 billion, and Valencia (VLC) with €400 million. 

The two airports on the island of Tenerife, Tenerife Norte (TFN) and Tenerife Sur–Reina Sofia (TFS), will receive €550 million and €250 million, respectively.  

Airport investment in Spain is typically funded by landing fees and other charges paid by operators. In this regard, the announcement by the Spanish government arrives just days after Ryanair announced its withdrawal from several Spanish regional airports in disagreement with the landing fees levied by Aena.  

The low-cost Irish airline is reducing its capacity to and from Spain by over one million seats, with a possible further reduction of an additional million in the near future. Airports in the Canary Islands and along Spain’s Atlantic regions of Galicia and Cantabria have been particularly badly hit by this move.  

Aena responded to Ryanair’s decision with a harsh reply in which it accused the airline of using blackmail as a negotiating tactic. The airport operator defended also its fee policy, arguing that it is transparent and in line with industry standards. 

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