Barcelona El Prat is the 2nd largest airport in Spain, situated 12km from the city center. With over 47 million passengers yearly, it is the biggest airport in Catalonia and 2nd biggest in Spain, right behind Madrid – Barajas Airport.
Barcelona El Prat is currently operating 3 runways in 2 directions – 07R; 07L; 25L; 25R; 20; 02. Between runways 25L and 25R is iconic 62 meters high hyperboloid ATC tower build in 2004. There are 2 terminals in Barcelona, Terminal 1 (T1) and Terminal 2 (T2). Terminal 1 with its 166 check-in desks and 101 gates is the biggest terminal on the airport, it operates more than 70% of flights. Terminal 2 is mainly operated by low-cost carriers like Ryanair, Norweigan or EasyJet.
Terminal building design
I was quite impressed when I started my first flight on this scenery. Basically, the whole building is made from glass, and designing well-looking glass panels is quite a challenge, to be honest, and JustSim accepted the challenge and designed one of the best glass panels I’ve ever seen. The scenery also features SAM (Scenery Animation Manager), which is basically adding animations to scenery, for example, the ability to automatically connect jetways or VDGS (Stand Guidance System – displays which are showing pilots when to stop aircraft on tarmac) and many more, but this isn’t SAM review.
Ramp design
A ramp is a place where aircraft stands while on the ground. The design of the ramp is probably the best I’ve seen in X-Plane 11. JustSim added really cool-looking wear effect and ground equipment on the ramps and it looks very realistic. There is nothing I could complain about.
Taxiway design
The taxiway is basically a road for airplanes and since Barcelona El Prat is a big airport it isn’t easy to navigate to your gate, parking place or runway. JustSim handled this problem perfectly and added navigation signs on the ground (same as on real airport), which are helping pilots navigate to their assigned gate, parking place or runway.
Runway design
Until now I didn’t say a single bad word about this scenery. And sadly, the runway design isn’t good. I’m sorry, but the runway is in comparison with the other parts of the scenery really bad. Why? If you compare the runway in real life and in the sim, it just doesn’t look the same.
Overall design
Overall, the design of the scenery is very good. There is just one thing I think, that should be redesigned, and that is the runway, which I didn’t fall in love with, but generally, everything else is very well done, there is even Barcelona harbour included. Sadly, JustSim didn’t design the city.
Conclusion
The combination of so many features and great design with the price tag of 24€ is really worth it! The scenery doesn’t have huge PC requirements, so even with slower PCs, there is no problem running the scenery. I would consider this scenery as the best-looking European scenery. I’m giving it a 9 out of 10. I took that one point away for the runway design and lack of small textures.
