The Mayor of Barcelona Proposes Ending All Flights to Madrid

[brooklynite]

Airline Geeks

The aviation world is in turmoil in Spain after the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, announced a few days ago that she will request Barcelona-El Prat Airport, the main airport of the Catalonian city, to terminate all flights to destinations that can be reached by train, thereby included the famous ‘Puente Aereo,’ the shuttle service between Barcelona and the Spanish capital Madrid.

This is intended to reduce carbon emission in the country since the high-speed train AVE (Alta Velocidad Española) produces 20 times less CO2, claims Ms. Colau, and therefore represents a greener alternative. High speed trains connect Barcelona Sants station to Madrid Atocha almost 20 times a day in each direction in two hours, 30 minutes in case of nonstop trains, and in slightly over three hours for trains stopping at intermediate stations.

Flights between Madrid Barajas and Barcelona El Prat take slightly over one hour, but train stations are located in the city centers while airports require considerable time to be reached. Furthermore, the check-in and boarding process for trains is substantially faster given the absence of security screening, making the door-to-door travel time faster by train than by airplane.

Currently, there are up to 30 daily flights between Barajas and El Prat operated by three carriers: Iberia, Vueling and Air Europa. Iberia and Vueling are part of the IAG group that has also made a takeover bid on Air Europa pending regulatory approval.

Spanish HSR runs between Barcelona and Madrid in 3 hours.

[MLAA]

1. Love the trains in Spain.

So easy to use and much more relaxing than airports.

[forgotmylogin]

6. Do they go mainly on the plain?

(sorry!)

[MLAA]

8. Only when it's raining!

[Arthur_Frain]

2. You're actually going to let this go without posting a "the train in Spain stays mainly..." joke?

Seems such a shame.

[JDC]

3. The plane in Spain has been grounded for the train..

[defacto7]

4. The trains in Spain filled mainly by the planes.

[enid602]

5. trains

There haven't been flights between LAX and San Diego for decades. Just trains. Should work out just fine for Spain.

[DFW]

7. As one who flies to Spain frequently, this leaves out significant details

I hardly know where to start.

First, the line for just getting a reservation on the AVE often takes just as long as the trip itself. It has assigned seats just like a plane, you can't just walk on and sit wherever you want.

Absence of security screening? Whoever wrote the article obviously never took the train, and never asked anyone who has. There is security screening at both Madrid's Atocha station and Barcelona's Sants station. Does no one remember the 200 dead after the Atocha bombing?

The puente is a highly vital to passengers departing from Barcelona, connecting through Madrid to destinations not served (or unde-served) by direct flights from Barcelona. The same goes for passengers heading for Barcelona who can't get direct flights and have to first fly to Madrid. For example, the evening flight from Barcelona to back to Düsseldorf does not run daily, and is often full when it does. I have often had to fly from Barcelona to Madrid to connect to a flight home in the evening.

While Madrid's Barajas airport is indeed far from town, Barcelona's airport is not too bad a ride, and I usually am at my destination in the middle of town by taxi in half an hour or less after landing.

Now, for travel only between the two cities, I would indeed prefer the train, even if it's more expensive (as with flights, fares vary widely). You can get decent food, and the landscape is quite a scene. Take the nonstop if you can, since the half hour you save can be spent doing something more fun. But both trains arrive at crowded stations, and finding public transportation, especially in Madrid, can be a long wait and cumbersome.

[Liberal In Texas]

9. That was quite interesting. n/t

[DFW]

10. I can't believe anyone would publish that

It is so full of inaccuracies/omissions, it needed more corrections than it provided facts.

Una boixeria/tontería (foolishness in Catalan/Castilian)