The President of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Minister of Public Works, José Blanco and the President of the Generalitat, José Montilla, inaugurated the new T1 terminal at El Prat Airport in Barcelona, which shall be used for the first time by the companies of Star Alliance, headed by Spanair.
The T1 terminal covers an area 544.0m2, has 166 check-in desks and close to 12,000 car parking spaces. It will be able to process 8,000 items of baggage per hour and will create around 3,000 directly related jobs. The first day of opening shall mobilize 4,000 workers along with a further 150 people who shall offer information in relation to possible doubts and confusions, as movement of 240 flights, 30,000 passengers and 18,000 items of baggage is expected.
It is forecast that the new terminal shall receive around 30 million passengers a year, which added to the existing terminal means that Barcelona Airport shall handle approximately 55 million passengers annually and have the capacity to manage 90 flights per hour. The airport shall also have 74 parking areas for aircraft.
A vast project
Located between the airport runways, the new infrastructure has cost €1,258 million, including the new terminal building designed by the architect Ricardo Bofill, the technological systems and associated systems. Amongst the characteristics of the terminal which are worthy of greater mention are: the 101 boarding gates, 43 passenger airbridges – with a possible increase to 50, 66 check-in desks and 52 auto-check-in machines as well as the 24.4 Km of baggage carousel belts.
Along with the extension of the airport, the service areas shall also be increased, with the creation of an airport city where the construction of hotels, offices and a congress center are contemplated upon an area covering some 150 hectares. The construction of this terminal has meant the creation of new access roadways from the C-31 highway as well as a link roadway between terminals T1 and T2.
Since mid-March, close on 6,000 ‘extras’ have been employed in more than twenty-odd exploitation trials, with an average of 300 per day, along with 300 workers from AENA and the airline companies. As from this summer, the 19 airline companies which form Star Alliance and headed by Spanair shall begin operating from the terminal. At the end of September the One World airline group (Iberia) and Sky Team (Air Europa) at the end of the year, shall also join operations.
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