Foundation and early years Barcelona's first airfield, located at El Remolar, began operations in 1916. However, it did not have good expansion prospects, so a new airport at El Prat opened in 1918. The first plane was a
Latécoère Salmson 300 which arrived from
Toulouse with final destination
Casablanca. The airport was used as headquarters of the Aeroclub of Catalonia and the base for the
Spanish Navy's
Zeppelin fleet. Scheduled commercial service began in 1927 with an
Iberia service to Madrid
Cuatro Vientos Airport. This was Iberia's first route. During the time of the
Second Spanish Republic El Prat was one of the bases of
LAPE (Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas). In 1948, a
runway was built (now called runway 07-25); in the same year the first overseas service was operated by
Pan American World Airways to
New York City, using a
Lockheed Constellation. Between 1948 and 1952, a second runway was constructed (runway 16–34), perpendicular to the previous, also taxiways were constructed and a terminal to accommodate passengers. In 1963, the airport reached one million passengers a year. A new
control tower was built in 1965. In 1968, a new terminal was opened, which still exists and is in use as what is now Terminal 2B. On 3 August 1970,
Pan American World Airways inaugurated regular service among Barcelona,
Lisbon and
New York, operated by a
Boeing 747. On 4 November of the same year, Iberia began the "Air-shuttle" service between Barcelona and
Madrid–Barajas. A few years later, in 1976, a terminal was built specifically for Iberia's air-shuttle service and a terminal exclusively for cargo, an annexed mail service and an aircraft ramp for air cargo. In 1977, the airport handled over 5 million passengers annually. From the late seventies to the early nineties, the airport was stalled in traffic and investments until the
1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona. El Prat underwent a major development consisting of the modernization and expansion of the existing terminal, which became known as Terminal B, and the construction of two further terminals flanking that, known as Terminals A and C respectively. They announced flights from June 2017 to
Los Angeles,
Oakland,
Punta Cana and
Buenos Aires. On 14 October 2019, the airport was the
first target of protesters after the sentencing of the
trial of Catalonia independence leaders. In the morning, called upon by
Democratic Tsunami thousands flocked all the accesses and concourses disrupting normal operations.
Catalan Police ordered the closing of all transportation services (bus,
Metro and
Rail) to avoid further arrivals of demonstrators. The blockade of the main access road (
C-32 highway) with people walking between the terminals and city center made Taxi and other services unavailable. Deployment of
riot police from
Civil Guard,
National Police and
Mossos d'Esquadra to evict protesters lead to massive confrontations leaving dozens injured. Using social media the organizers called off the action by night time but disruption continued. More than a hundred flights were cancelled during the 14th of October and twenty more were announced for the next day by the main operator,
Vueling. ==Operations==