30 April 1931: The opening of Madrid-Barajas airport

Ninety years ago today, 30 April 1931, Madrid's Barajas airport welcomed its first official flight. The plane hadn't come far, less than 30 kilometres, in fact, from Getafe. Four sites had been proposed as the location for the new Madrid National Airport: Getafe, Carabanchel Alto, Vallecas and Barajas.

There were a few teething problems with the new airport, including the presence of a large number of birds which made taking-off difficult. That was resolved by using a solution dreamed up by the Americans some time beforehand. Six falcons were brought to Barajas, and their presence deterred other birds from being near the planes.

The first destinations from Barajas were Barcelona and Seville, and the flights were operated by LAPE, the company we know nowadays as Iberia. The fare to Barcelona at that time was 150 pesetas, and to Seville 125 pesetas.

In 1965 the airport's name was officially changed from the Madrid National Airport to Madrid-Barajas, but after the death of Adolfo Suárez, the first democratically elected prime minister after the death of Franco, the authorities decided to commemorate him by renaming it Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas.

What began as basically a small airfield grew and grew. In terms of terminal area, Barajas is now the biggest airport in the world and it also has the longest civilian runway, the 18R-36L.

It is also one of the busiest in the world. In 2014, it was used by 41,833,374 passengers and the numbers continued to increase. The following year, it was the European airport with the highest rise in passengers, ahead of Rome-Fiumicino, London Gatwick and Amsterdam, who normally top the list

However, as with all airports in Spain, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are clear from the passenger numbers for last year. Two years ago, 61,734,944 passengers used Madrid Barajas. Last year, that figure had dropped to just 17,112,389, a reduction of 72.3 per cent.