SITUATED LESS THAN EIGHT MILES from Madrid’s bustling and historic city center lies Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, commonly known as Madrid-Barajas. As Europe’s largest airport at 7,500 acres, Madrid-Barajas accommodates exceptionally large numbers of passengers each year, with 50.4 million served in 2016 alone.

The airport’s prime location serves as the gateway to the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe and the world and provides a particularly important link between Europe and Latin America.

The airport features four passenger terminals, the Executive Terminal for executive and business aviation, one cargo area and two main hangar areas. The facility underwent a major $22 million refurbishment and expansion of terminal T4 and satellite terminal T4S beginning in 2012, adding nearly 166,000 square feet of new commercial space, including 47 new restaurants; The Fashion Gallery, the largest luxury retail store in a European airport; and Air Rooms Madrid, an airport hotel. The new terminal includes metro and rail stations, landside transit links to the existing terminals and a system linking the core terminal with the satellite — just a few of several conveniences installed for passengers over the past few years.

Due to its size and location, Madrid-Barajas is an important hub for several of the world’s largest airlines. The airport serves as a primary hub for Iberia, Spain’s flag carrier airline responsible for 40 percent of the airport’s traffic. Other major airlines that set up shop at Madrid include Aeroflot, Air Canada, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Emirates and Qatar Airways.

In May American Airlines launched flights between Madrid-Barajas and Charlotte, N.C. (CLT), bringing the airline’s operation to 70 weekly flights between Spain and the United States from Madrid and Barcelona (BCN). Also in recent news, Air Europa launched its new Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 on the airline’s Madrid–Lima (LIM) route. All Air Europa flights, European and long-haul, arrive and depart from Madrid-Barajas’ Terminal T1.

In addition to its prime location, Madrid-Barajas is frequently recognized for its operational, security and customer successes. In March the airport fared well in Skytrax’s list of top 100 airports in the world, named Best Southern European Airport. It also ranked fifth-best terminal in the world for its refurbished and impressive T4 terminal.

Following this significant achievement, Madrid-Barajas ranked first in the Airport Council International’s Best in Europe Awards in the category for 25-plus million passengers a year. ACI judges marked each airport on criteria including facilities, customer service and experience, security, airline operations and retail. The airport won praise for its strategy to boost air connectivity between Europe and South America and for the continuous introduction of advanced technical innovations. It was also lauded for its community relations and its diverse environmental initiatives, such as its Environmental Management System that includes a stratified cooling system and the collection of rainwater to irrigate the surrounding landscape.

Madrid-Barajas’ recent operational and environmental efforts, its massive T4 and T4S terminals and its convenient location are only a few of the factors contributing to the airport’s ranking as one of the most important in Europe over the past several years.