business in barcelona

The Spanish Airport Authority (AENA) has announced that this coming winter season over 8.4 million seats will be on offer on flights out of Barcelona El Prat Airport, an increase of 6.8% compared to last year. Seats on intercontinental destinations have increased by 13.6% over last year. The number of flight operations (take-offs and landings) is anticipated to be 47,000: an increase of 4.1% to 2013. In contrast, the airport of Girona Costa Brava (northern Catalonia) has announced it will offer 16 routes this winter season, 20% less than last year. Ryanair has implemented the cuts it announced last May and will no longer be connecting Girona to London or Paris. Ryanair and Wizz Air will be the only airlines flying from Girona to Kiev, and only Ten Airwais will operate charter flights to Nador, Morocco. This summer, Girona airport connected passengers to 69 destinations.

In the five years since it opened, the T1 Terminal of Barcelona El Prat Airport has received over 111 million people, overseen approximately 1.3 million take-off and landing operations and processed 70 million items of luggage. The new airport terminal became operational on 17 June 2009 and marked its fifth anniversary on Tuesday. The new terminal has processed twice as many passengers in this period than the older T2 terminal. In addition, Barcelona El Prat Airport was on Tuesday night announced as the best airport in Europe, at the ACI (Airport Council International) Europe Awards 2014 held in Frankfurt. It was the second time the airport has received this accolade.

For the first time ever, over 7.5 million tourists stayed in one of Barcelona’s hotels in 2013. More specifically, the Catalan capital welcomed 7.571,766 visitors in its hotel rooms last year, meaning a 1.77% increase on 2012, when Barcelona’s hotels accounted for 7.440,113 guests. 80% of visitors are foreigners, mainly from France, the UK and the US. Besides, this increase in the number of hotel guests  is not the only record achieved last year. Indeed, the number of overnight stays has also reached an unprecedented number, with almost 16.5 million overnight stays registered in 2013, a 3.4% growth on 2012 figures.   

The number of people travelling through the main Catalan airport reached a new record last year, despite the economic recession. 35,145,176 people travelled through the airport, a 2.2% increase compared to 2011. Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona Airport’s main competitor, saw the number of its passengers drop by 9% to a total of 45.19 million people. Barcelona’s improvement is due to the significant increase in international passengers, since domestic ones dropped by 9.6%. The greatest increase was in the number of passengers arriving from or going to another EU state, which grew by 9.2%. People flying from or to outside the European Union increased by 8.9% and intercontinental passengers by 3.45%.

During four intense days, the ceremonial hall of the old Palau del Rei (King’s Palace) of Barcelona, the Saló del Tinell, became a catwalk full of glitter, aromas and, above all, glamour.

The economic crisis that has dragged on since 2008 has led many young professionals to create their own businesses. Such is the case of four Catalan entrepreneurs in new technologies, all of whom have built their own companies in recent months.