Planning Catalonia’s Airport System based on Econometric Analysis

The continued growth of the commercial aviation in the world, specifically in Catalonia (only hindered by the outburst of the pandemic), denotes the urge to build resilient and environmentally conscious infrastructures, capable of efficiently absorb the generated demand. Understanding the scope of airports (far more than mere nodes of transport) and their key role is fundamental to tackle its economic growth potential in a sustainable way. Therefore, this thesis presents a holistic study of the demand generation- from structural and economic variables- to help understand, on the one hand, the journey towards the future of commercial aviation in Catalonia, and, on the other hand, the planification and distribution of the airport’s activity flows throughout the territory to achieve maximum economic and logistic efficiency, without losing sight of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. Working on statistic and socioeconomic studies, a demand generation model has been created for the three most important airports of Catalonia in the 2035 horizon, as well as the study of different scenarios to understand better the possible configurations of the Catalan airport’s system. With the different results it has been proved that the civil aviation market in Catalonia has rooted strongly (both historically and economically) in the region, with solid forecasting performances for the next years. This increase must be translated into the enhancement of the different airport facilities. Following scientific criteria such as economics and acoustic, environmental and social sustainability, it has been observed that the most resilient configuration of aviation flows goes through a joint one with shared responsibilities between infrastructures. The complementary characteristic of the current infrastructure creates synergies in the region, enabling a more equative distribution of the wealth generated and the environmental impact. The nowadays structure of the commercial and civil aviation market in Catalonia supports this redistribution of powers to balance the region and potentiate it in a holistic, responsible and firm way