The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has reiterated that the construction of a second runway at the Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airport "makes no sense" and has applauded that this proposal "has fortunately already been abandoned." As he has emphasized, the priority of the Alicante aerodrome is to improve its current facilities, given that "right now it needs a terminal, taxiways, and fingers, not more runway."
In an interview granted to Europa Press, Puente responds to the claim of the Valencian Generalitat, which has been asking the central government for a second runway for the Alicante-Elche airport. The Consell justifies this demand due to the strong increase in traffic, after exceeding 19.9 million annual passengers in 2025, with a year-on-year increase of 8.5%, and due to the desire to compete on similar terms with other tourist airports, such as Málaga.
The Transport Minister highlights, in this context, that for the period 2027-2030, it is expected to mobilize 13 billion euros across all Spanish airports. "That is to say, we are going to increase capacity and travel comfort in all our airports," he emphasizes, stressing that these are "very large investment forecasts for the next three years."
In parallel, when referring to the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, Puente does admit that an expansion of the terminal is essential there, as it is "saturated." In his opinion, "the growth scenario is possible" and will be aimed at better utilizing off-peak hours, although he acknowledges that "the seams are already very close to the limit."
The minister advances that Barajas will face "a tremendous transformation," which will include a new annex building for passport control and the integration of terminals T-1, T-2, and T-3. "We are going to leave much more operational and comfortable terminals for passengers, because there will be no access control, but the control will be outsourced to a neighboring building and we are going to unify those three terminals," he details.
In this line, he adds that "we are going to add 500 more meters of terminal in T-4, we are going to invest in many airports in Spain, like the example of Barajas, we are working in Prat, etc. There, the needs are more for runway, that is what we are doing."