The ultimate guide to Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas (LEMD)

Aerial view of barajas

Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas (LEMD) is the main airport in Spain followed by El Prat (LEBL) and Mallorca (LEPA), and the hub for Iberia and Air Europa. Being the biggest airport in Spain, it’s the main access into spanish territory, and connected to the other cities of the country, through Iberia’s, Air Europa’s and vueling’s regional flights.

TERMINALS

Here you can see the terminals colored in different shades of blue. Image taken from the official AIP

T4

Used mainly by Iberia and Vueling, for regional flights within the peninsular territory, including Portugal, Canaries and Balearic Islands. It can only narrow-bodied aircraft. Consists of 49 gates (gate 300 to gate 394, using only even numbers), and 15 aprons situated north, for the Iberia Regional/ Air Nostrum CRJs and ATRs (gates 400 to 419)

T4S

Terminal T4S consist of 66 gates (gates 500 to 586, why they skip numbers is beyond my knowledge), and is home of all aircraft that fly out of and into the peninsula. It is the terminal of iberia’s A330s and A350s, but this terminal also accepts iberia’s narrow bodies that fly out of Spain. Also it is the special terminal for the airlines that form part of the OneWorld alliance. And It’s also the terminal for Emirate’s A380 and B777, flights (Both go into gate 505). Here is where you can find the tower.

T1, 2 and 3

This is very simple, all the airlines that land on Barajas have to go to terminals 1, 2 or 3. Terminal 1 is used exclusively by widebody aircrafts, ordinary flights to T1 would be the Aeromexico B787, Aerolíneas Argentinas A330, Turkish A330 or United B767. The narrowbody flights must always go to terminals 1 or 2. Terminal 1, colored in dark blue, consists of 19 gates (gates 1 to 19), terminal 2 is the oldest terminal, and has 10 gates (gates 20 to 29) and terminal 3, in the lightest shade of blue, has 11 gates (gates 30 to 40)

Barajas also has a General aviation terminal located south of terminal one, and a Cargo apron, placed very closed to the threshold of RW32L. Both are indicated with blue stripes in the map above

RUNWAYS

Barajas has a runway configuration of 2 RWs for landings and 2 RWs for departures.You can see the first ever runway of the airport, 36C/18C, with crosses on the map above from T4S down to R4; it’s now used for parking of grounded planes.

RW36/18L/R

RWs36L/R are the departing runways for the north configuration Please don’t ever takeoff from RW32L, passengers in Terminal 4 will hate you for it, and I will too. RW36R measures 11483 ft or 3500m. RW36L is one of the longest comercial runways in Europe, measuring 14272ft or 4350m. RW36L is the departure runway used at night (23:00 to 07:00).
Runways 18L and 18R, at an altitude of 1919 and 2000ft respectively, are the landing runways when in the south configuration.

RW32/14L/R

RWs14L/R are the departing runways when in the south conf. measuring 13451ft and 11483ft respectively. RW36L/R are, you guessed it, the landing runways in the north configuration at an altitude of 1906ft and 1877 ft respectively.

PROCEDURES

TAXI

north configuration
south configuration

Official LEMD AIP

This is my first ever airport guide, and I really enjoyed guiding you through my country’s biggest airport and I hope you enjoyed it and learned something from it.

Which airport should I deconstruct next?
  • Barcelona (LEBL)
  • Mallorca (LEPA)
  • Málaga (LEMG)
  • Gran Canaria (GCLP)

0 voters

Hello,

This is a great guide for LEMD that you have put together.

However, this is more suited to the #ground-school:community-tutorials category which you need to be TL2 Member or above to post in. You are currently TL1 Basic User.

Keep being active in the community and contributing in a positive manner overall and you’ll get there in no time.

Please also feel free to take a read of the category rules for the #ground-school:community-tutorials to get a head start from when you can post in there:



Take care and let us know if you have any questions!

1 Like

Thanks! I noticed when I was writing it that I couldn’t post it in that tag hahha. I can’t wait to reach level two :)

See the highlighted reply 😊