Barcelona Airport has 54 intercontinental connections, accounting for 7% of passengers

Barcelona Airport currently has direct flight connections with around fifty destinations beyond Europe, accounting for around 7% of passengers in 2024 – almost 4 million travelers according to data from airport management company Aena.

At Madrid-Barajas, transcontinental passengers make up 30% of the total.

Barcelona has around twenty direct connections with the Americas, including 11 with the United States; 17 with Asia, 15 with Africa (mainly North Africa), and none with Oceania.

Overall, a record 55 million passengers used Barcelona-El Prat in 2024, the theoretical maximum capacity laid out in a 1999 master plan from Spain's transport ministry.

Expansion

The Catalan president, Salvador Illa, announced on Tuesday that Barcelona could have a bigger airport by 2033 if all expansion plans remain on schedule.

The project would be fully completed in eight years, and the directorate plan would be approved in 2028. Works are planned to start in 2030.

Environmentalists accused the president of "climate denial" over the expansion plans.