Barcelona–El Prat Airport (IATA: BCN, ICAO: LEBL) (Catalan: Aeroport de Barcelona – el Prat, Spanish: Aeropuerto de Barcelona-El Prat), also known as Barcelona Airport, is an international airport located 12 km (7.5 mi) southwest of the centre of Barcelona, Spain, lying in the municipalities of El Prat de Llobregat, Viladecans, and Sant Boi.
It is the main airport of Catalonia, the second largest in Spain behind Madrid Barajas Airport and one of the busiest in the world. In 2015 Barcelona Airport handled a record 39.7 million passengers, up 5.7% from 2014. It is a main base for the main Spanish airlines like Vueling and a hub for Iberia or Air Europa, as well as the Irish low-cost giant Ryanair and the Irish carrier Norwegian Air International. The airport mainly serves domestic European destinations, also having flights to North America (United States of America and Canada), South America (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru), Middle East (Egypt, Israel, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar), Asia (China, Singapore and South Korea), and Africa (Senegal, Gambia, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Ghana and Cape Verde).
The Barcelona–Madrid air shuttle service, known as the “Puente Aereo” (in Spanish), or “Pont Aeri” (in Catalan) literally “Air Bridge”, was the world’s busiest route until 2008, with the highest number of flight operations (971 per week) in 2007. The schedule has been reduced since February 2008, when a Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line was opened, covering the distance in 2 hours 30 minutes, and quickly became popular.
