This new entity, resulting from budget agreements between ERC and PSC, aims to provide a unified voice for Catalonia in airport planning and management. The Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, emphasized the goal of having a national strategy to influence key areas.
The AAC will also seek to organize the current fragmentation of the airport map, which includes airports managed by Aena like El Prat or Girona, and others by Aeroports de Catalunya such as Lleida-Alguaire and La Seu. Ester Capella from Esquerra welcomed the initiative, calling for a comprehensive view of the Catalan airport system.
The AAC's functions will include developing, monitoring, and evaluating strategic planning, promoting connectivity, and driving decarbonization plans and improvements in rail links. The Air Route Committee will be integrated into the body to seek flights with economic value for Catalonia.
We need to have a determined, global, national strategy and be able to influence it.
The Director of Airports of the Generalitat, Jordi Candela, explained that the AAC will jointly plan the entire Catalan airport system from a long-term territorial perspective. However, the Authority will not be able to administer, manage, or operate the airports, tasks that will remain the responsibility of state bodies like Aena or Enaire.
Candela stressed that the AAC will act from "the terminal outwards," while Aena handles management "inwards." This distinction arises despite Aena's president, Maurici Lucena, reiterating that airport management can only be in the hands of the State according to the Constitution.
The entity will have its own legal personality and a governance structure comprising 6 representatives from the Generalitat, 3 from local entities, 2 from economic and social agents, and 2 independent experts, a model similar to one already agreed upon by the Basque government.
