Inside Spain: How €13 billion will make travel easier for UK tourists

This week, Spain's state-owned airport operator Aena announced it would invest almost €13 billion over five years to expand and modernise its airports.

Madrid Barajas and Barcelona El Prat will be getting most of the money, with €4 billion and €3 billion respectively.

Other popular destinations such as Málaga and Alicante will also be getting above €1 billion each, while the biggest ‘losers’ are considered to be Valencia and Seville, where calls for improvements at their airports have not been met by Spain’s central government.

One of the most interesting objectives of this huge investment is the focus being placed on the British travellers.

Aena will strengthen controls or expand separation zones between passengers from within and outside the EU/Schengen Zone at nine airports to address the new EES border control requirements, which according to the latest information is due to be launched in October.

For Aena, this is largely to cater for British passengers, who following Brexit are no longer EU nationals and therefore can’t be waved through passport control upon arrival in Spain, often leading to longer waiting times.

The improvements will be made at airports in Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Menorca, Ibiza, Málaga, Alicante, A Coruña, Girona, and Santander.

It seems likely that much of this investment will go to the introduction of e-gates which will allow Brits and other non-EU nationals to scan their passports more easily and quickly rather than waiting in line to have their documents checked by police.

Spain is one of only a handful of EU countries already allowing limited e-gate access for UK citizens, but only at selected airports and at certain times. Even then, they often still require a passport stamp, despite their passport also being processed automatically.

Aena now looks set to introduce this self-service passport scanning technology at many more Spanish airports.

In the case of Alicante, an old terminal will be demolished to build a new satellite terminal for non-Schengen passengers.

According to Aena, "this is mainly due to the new border control requirements, combined with a predominantly British international traffic and the need to provide these passengers with a better quality area with a wider range of services."

There are also suggestions that airports such as Málaga’s and Alicante’s will also soon be equipped with the technology that allows passengers to not have to remove liquids or laptops from their luggage, another way of shortening waiting times.

Spain received 18.3 million British nationals in 2024, a number which has been rising year on year despite the UK’s exit from the EU.

They are in fact the biggest group of foreign tourists in Spain, far more than French (12.9 million) and German visitors (11.9 million).

American tourists represent the second biggest non-EU nationality in terms of visitor number to Spain last year, with 4.2 million, and they too will be able to benefit from Aena’s huge investment.

These airport improvements at airports across Spain are due to take place between 2027 and 2031.