As opposition to the project grows in central Barcelona, ERC wants the planned expansion of Barcelona Airport halted. Diana Riba says the airport is already operating at the limit of its capacity and wants the Parlament and Catalonia’s citizens to have a say in future airport investment decisions.
Riba made the appeal on Sunday before a demonstration against the project on Paseo de Gràcia. The ERC deputy leader and MEP used the protest to challenge the expansion and the way major infrastructure decisions are made. Around 210 organisations from across civic life backed the march, held in Barcelona on 20 September, including environmental and neighbourhood groups. They marched under the slogan ‘No a l’ampliació, ni ara ni mai’.
The immediate policy issue is DORA III. Aena’s third Airport Regulatory Document sets out investment of close to 13 billion euros across Spain’s airport network. The Spanish government approved the structure for 2027-2031, with investment materials allocating approximately 1.76 billion euros to Barcelona-El Prat. Riba says the structure should not set Catalonia’s priorities without a stronger role for its institutions and population.
Her preference is clear: rail should come before more airport capacity.
Riba says railway investment is more urgent than the airport project. She ties that choice to a different model for Catalonia, with transport organised around efficiency rather than continued growth in one type of infrastructure. Her proposal has not been enacted. She is calling for the project to stop and for control over these decisions to move to Catalonia.
The DORA III allocation does not immediately authorise construction of a third runway at El Prat. El País reports that the current package focuses on improvements to terminals T1 and T2, alongside parking and supporting infrastructure. Any full physical expansion has been discussed as a later-stage option after 2032.
The economic argument reaches beyond transport. Riba wants Catalonia to rely less on tourism by developing other sectors, including food production and related activity. She says a more varied economy would give the region greater sovereignty and a stronger economic base.
That position differs from the pressure described in an earlier port report. This dispute is not about accommodation capacity; it is about whether airport growth should remain the basic answer to transport and economic demand.
The dispute brings together two questions often handled separately: how nearly 13 billion euros will be spent across Spain’s airport network, and who should set investment priorities in Catalonia. Riba’s intervention ties both to the same demand for regional control.
RTVE Catalunya reports that supporters describe the government-approved plan as a modernisation programme. The money would fund terminal and apron upgrades, along with supporting infrastructure, without immediately funding the controversial third runway. Zeroport and allied environmental and neighbourhood groups say the investment still extends the airport-growth policy and postpones the underlying dispute rather than resolving it.
Riba wants investment redirected towards rail and the economy made less dependent on tourism, while giving the Parlament and citizens a larger role in the decision. ERC says Catalonia should choose efficiency and a broader economic base before adding capacity to a tourism-led model.
