Post #4495862

2026-08-11 10:11 UTC

The thing about the air shuttle is that whilst it’s a one hour flight, the door-to-door time is closer to 3.5 hours. Neither airport is anywhere near their city centres. Barcelona is a 30-60 min drive from its airport, and Madrid is a 45-90 min drive from its airport. Add to that the time it takes to get past security, and you’re looking at more time on the ground than in the air. And neither had particularly good public transport connections. The Madrid-Barcelona high speed trains, on the other hand, go from Barcelona-Sants to Madrid-Puerta de Atocha stations, which are in the town centres, and they can take as little as 2.5 hours on the non-stop service, or 3 hours when with a few stops in between. And trains are much more comfortable. Plus, in the era of the Blackberry, even the spotty coverage on the train was much better for a business ego than the 1 hour blackout on the plane. Let’s not forget the WiFi either. The demand for the air shuttle halved in about a year.

Replies (1)

@moof@cupoftea.social 2026-08-11 10:18

The air shuttle service still exists. But it’s a shadow of its former self. The “hop on the next available plane” ticketing still has a convenience factor over its rail equivalents. Parking is much easier in both airports, something that the denizens of the more affluent surrounding towns appreciate, given how poorly connected they are by public transport. Whilst there is some flexibility in the train services, they are mostly of the “book a seat on a specific train, and we might let you change it on the day if we have space” variety. This is much less appealing, especially as the ticket office queues are notoriously slow in the station. I’ve been in one of them for 75 minutes in Sants. But for most businesspeople I’ve talked to in Madrid or Barcelona, the AVE, and more recently the Iryo, are the only way to get between the two cities. And the low cost Ouigo services (and formerly the Avlo ones) also fill a much-needed gap in the market.

Open ##4495861