Welcome to Greece Directory

The Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Madrid Airport (IATA: MAD, OACI: LEMD),45 called until 2014 Madrid-Barajas Airport,5 is a public Spanish airport owned by Aena, located 12 km from the center of the city of Madrid in the northeast direction. It is the leading Spanish airport in terms of passenger traffic, air cargo and operations,6 as well as the fifth in Europe and the twenty-fourth in the world in terms of the number of passengers

On March 23, 1929, the specifications were published for a competition to choose the land for the development of Madrid’s civil airport.8 The competition closed on April 15 and four proposals were submitted: Carabanchel Alto, Getafe, Vallecas and Barajas, the latter proposal being finally accepted by Rogelio Sol Mestre. The intention was to replace the airfields of Alcalá, Carabanchel and Getafe, and for this purpose a vacant meadow was selected in the northeast of the capital in the then municipality of Barajas (which was later absorbed by Madrid) of 493 fanegas (about 320 ha), with good communications with the capital through the road to France (the current A-2) and in an uninhabited area free of obstacles. The purchase of the land was signed on 30 July 1930 for a value of 730,000 pesetas.

On 23 July a competition was held to draw up the project for the new airport, and seven different projects were submitted. The jury of the competition (composed of different civil and military professionals) selected the proposal of the engineer Marqués de los Álamos and the architect Luis Gutiérrez de Soto. The works of the airport began as soon as the land was available, starting with the fitting out of the landing area and the installation of a landing light (the first air navigation aid the airport had). On April 14, 1930 the companies CLASSA, CETFA, CASA and CEA were authorized to set up in the airport. It was opened to national and international air traffic on April 22nd, 1931, although regular commercial operations took two years to begin, since the airport was still under construction. A small terminal was built next to the airfield, with a capacity for 30,000 passengers per year, as well as several hangars and the Club Aircraft building. The first director of the airport was Jacobo Armijo y Fernández de Alarcón.9

The first regular line was established by the company Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas (LAPE) with its line to Barcelona. In the 1930s, international flights began. When the Spanish civil war broke out, LAPE suspended its flight plan. During the war, war services and civil transport were carried out with Paris, Barcelona and the northern area. When the war ended, Barajas regained its status as a civilian airport, with the landing on April 12, 1939 of a German Lufthansa aircraft.10 On May 1, 1939, Iberia moved its equipment from Matacán (Salamanca) to Madrid-Barajas.11

Originally, the airfield was a large circle bordered with white with the name of Madrid inside, unpaved, formed by natural soil covered with grass. After the Civil War, the airport expansion program began in the 1940s with the creation of the company Aeropuertos Transoceánicos Españoles (ATE). The airfield is paved and new runways are designed, the first of which comes into operation in 1944 (the 15-33) which was 1.4 km long and 48 meters wide. By the end of the decade the airport had three runways, none of which exist today.