Editing Madrid–Barajas Airport (section)

===Early years===

The airport was constructed in 1927, opening to domestic and international air traffic on 22 April 1931, although regular commercial operations began two years later. A small terminal was constructed with a capacity for 30,000 passengers a year, in addition to several hangars and the building of the Avión Club. The first regular flight was established by [[Lineas Aéreas Postales Españolas]] (LAPE) with its route to [[Barcelona]]. In the 1930s, flights started to serve some European and African destinations, the first international flights from the airport.

Originally, the flight field was a large circle bordered in white with the name of Madrid in its interior, unpaved, consisting of land covered with natural grass. It was not until the 1940s that the flight field was paved and new runways were designed. The first runway which started operation in 1944 was 1,400 metres long and 45 metres wide.<ref name=history>{{cite web| title=History| url=http://www.aena.es/en/madrid-barajas-airport/history.html| publisher=Aena| access-date=30 June 2017}}</ref> By the end of the decade the airport had three runways, none of which exist today. In the late 1940s, scheduled flights to Latin America and the [[Philippines]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/complete/pr49/pr49-3.jpg|title= International Timetable 1949|publisher=Airline Timetable Images|accessdate=23 November 2021}}</ref> started.

In the 1950s, the airport supported over half a million passengers, increasing to five runways and scheduled flights to [[New York City]] began. The National Terminal, currently T2, began construction in 1954 and opened later that year. In the Plan of Airports of 1957, Barajas Airport is classified as a first-class international airport. By the 1970s, large jets were landing at Barajas, and the growth of traffic mainly as a result of tourism exceeded forecasts. At the beginning of the decade, the airport reached the 1.2&nbsp;million passengers, double that envisaged in the Plan of Airports of 1957.

In the 1970s, with the boom in tourism and the arrival of the [[Boeing 747]], the airport reached 4&nbsp;million passengers and began the construction of the international terminal (current T1). In 1974, [[Iberia (airline)|Iberia]], L.A.E. introduced the shuttle service between Madrid and Barcelona, a service with multiple daily frequencies and available without prior reservation.

The [[1982 FIFA World Cup]] brought significant expansion and modernisation of the airport's two existing terminals.<ref name=history/>

In the 1990s, the airport expanded further. In 1994, the first cargo terminal was constructed and the control tower was renovated. In 1997, it opened the North Dock, which is used as an exclusive terminal for Iberia's [[Schengen Agreement|Schengen]] flights. In 1998, it inaugurated a new control tower, 71 m tall and then in 1999 the new South Dock opened, which implies an expansion of the international terminal. During this time, the distribution of the terminals changed: The south dock and most of the International Terminal were now called T1, the rest of the International Terminal and Domestic Terminal were now called T2 and the north dock was called T3.

In November 1998, the new runway 18R-36L started operations (replacing the previous 18–36), 4,400 m long, one of the largest in Europe under expansion plans called Major Barajas. In 2000, it began the construction of new terminals T4 and its satellite, T4S, designed by architects [[Antonio Lamela]], [[Richard Rogers]] and [[Luis Vidal (architect)|Luis Vidal]]. Two parallel runways to the existing ones were also built.