Madrid Airport.
Airport Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suarez.
Madrid-Barajas airport is the fifth in Europe in number of passengers and in number of operations.
Only surpassed by London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
In the world list it is ranked number 15.
More than the JFK.
Above Rome, Shanghai, Singapore, Las Vegas or Istanbul.
However, the most striking thing is that it exceeds by 2 million passengers:
The mythical JFK of New York.
History of Madrid Airport.
Madrid Airport in 30s.
It was opened to air traffic on April 22, 1931.
Welcome Mister Marshall, 50s.
The Civil War brought everything to a standstill.
But in the 1950s the airport acclimated to new commercial demands.
In addition, in 1950 he opened the symbolic direct line to New York.
The figure of half a million passengers a year was also achieved.
The 60’s and the trained hawks.
The falcons of Rodríguez de la Fuente.
In 1969 birds began to be a problem as they hindered takeoffs and made landings difficult.
The most natural solution (while surprising at the time) was falconry.
The use of trained falcons allowed to clear the other air traffic of Barajas.
aAmerit that is attributed to the mediatic Spanish naturalist…
Teacher of the first falconers who worked here.
By the way, in 1969 Barajas was renamed Madrid Airport – Barajas.
The 70s, and the Jumbos.
With the jumbo jets landing…
The traffic doubles widely to exceed four million passengers a year.
The madness of the 80s.
In the 80s, work began on a profound remodeling of the National Terminal …
With a view to the 1982 World Soccer Championships.
Year 2000: the award-winning terminal.
To increase the airport’s capacity to 70 million passengers per year…
The construction of the Third Runway and the new Control Tower began.
Terminal T4, icon of the new Madrid.
In 2006 the famous T4 was opened, one of the icons of the new Madrid.
This building, designed by Richard Rogers and Estudio Lamela…
Not only considerably expanded the capacity of Madrid-Barajas…
But also proportionally beautified it.
So much so that in 2006 it won two of the most important architectural awards:
the Stirling Prize from the Royal Institute of British Architects …
And the ‘International RIBA European Awards 2006’.
In addition, the T4 was a definitive push for Rogers to win, a year later, with the Pritzker Prize.
Madrid Airport: The rainbow from south to north.
In addition to its wavy shape, the architectural highlight of this new terminal is its color.
The sculptures of Manolo Valdés.
“The realist, the flirtatious and the dreamer.”
Located in the check-in hall of the terminal.
The idea is to represent three different ladies, each with their own personality.
Vargas Llosa in the billing hall.
Valdés asked Vargas Llosa to write a text that would define each sculpture.
And he did it like this:
