In the 1990s, analysts for Aeropuerto Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA), the Spanish airport authority, decided that southern Europe needed a hub airport, one that would enable airlines to offer connections among continental and transatlantic flights. The idea was to develop a facility that would become a new connecting point between the Americas and Europe, one that could accommodate between 65 million and 70 million passengers annually. The new Terminal 4 at the Madrid-Barajas International Airport, completed and opened in February 2006, makes Madrid-Barajas the second-largest airport in Europe and the tenth largest in the world.