Ciudad Real Airport

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Aeropuerto Central Ciudad Real
Ciudad Real Airport, view from the south
Characteristics
ICAO code LERL
IATA code CQM
Coordinates

38 ° 51 '24 "  N , 3 ° 58' 12"  W Coordinates: 38 ° 51 '24 "  N , 3 ° 58' 12"  W.
Height above MSL 646 m (2119  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 14.5 km south of Ciudad Real ,
230 km south of Madrid
train Alta Velocidad Española (AVE)
Basic data
opening November 2008
closure April 2012
surface 200 ha
Start-and runway
10/28 4000 m × 60 m asphalt



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The Aeropuerto Central Ciudad Real (formerly Don Quijote Airport ) is a disused commercial airport in the south of the Spanish city ​​of Ciudad Real . When it opened in November 2008, it was the country's first privately operated international airport. In the absence of sufficient air traffic, commercial operations were suspended at the end of October 2011. The airport was completely closed in April 2012, but the operating license was retained (see: “ currently closed ”). In mid-July 2015, the Spanish news agency EFE reported that the Chinese company Tzaneen International wanted to offer 10,000 euros for the airport, but this was rejected.

The airport has since been considered one of the largest investment ruins in Spain and a prominent example of a ghost airport . It reopened as a cargo airport in September 2019.

description

Large aircraft could land on the runway, which is unusually long for smaller airports. This would have made the airport suitable to relieve the heavily frequented air hub of Madrid-Barajas , but without offering transfer connections. However, due to the altitude of the airport and the high temperatures, small aircraft taking off in the south cannot achieve full engine power, which can lead to problems as there is a mountain range in the direction of the southern mandatory reporting point Sierra .

history

Opening, bankruptcy, closure

Opened in November 2008, the airport had to file for bankruptcy in June 2010 due to persistently low passenger numbers . The debt at that time amounted to 290 million euros. The apron for general aviation , located directly at the tower, was never in operation due to the low traffic figures. The only line connections to Barcelona and Paris-Charles de Gaulle were operated by Vueling . Instead of the calculated 2.5 million passengers annually, only around 100,000 passengers were handled in the first half of 2011.

Scheduled operations were discontinued on October 31, 2011, but for the time being the airport remained in operation for general aviation and private jets continued to take off and land. On December 13, 2011, it was announced that the airport would initially have to cease operations for one year by order of a commercial court.

In April 2012, flight operations were completely stopped. In order to visibly signal the closed airport from the air, yellow crosses were drawn on the runway. Maintenance work will continue to be carried out on the site.

According to media reports (December 2013), investment banks in Spain and London considered it to be “sufficiently certain that the initiators of Ciudad Real never wanted to create an economically viable airport”. The initiators were mainly construction companies that earned so much from the construction that their small stake in the airport itself could be written off.

Interim uses

The bankruptcy judge decreed the purposes for which he wanted to rent out the airport as temporary use . The first clientele was film director Pedro Almodóvar , who was looking for a backdrop for his film Los amantes pasajeros (English: flying lovers ). More curious people gathered at the airport than ever before. Then came television, which also required a wide runway for a documentary about a plane crash. Finally, the judge gave a car company permission to use the site as a test track.

Sales intentions

In August 2013 it became known that the insolvent operating company CR Aeropertos of the airport was aiming for a sale at a price of around 100 million euros - compared to more than 400 million euros in construction costs. If no buyer can be found by December 27, 2013, the airport would be auctioned publicly by the insolvency administrator.

Auction and Outlook

On July 17, 2015, a message from the Spanish news agency EFE announced that the Chinese company Tzaneen International wanted to purchase the airport for 10,000 euros after several attempts at auction had previously failed. According to media reports, the company has announced plans to invest 60 to 100 million euros. Several Chinese companies are interested in "making the airport an important transshipment point for their exports to Europe". However, the bid was rejected as too low.

Trivia

The British car show Top Gear used the airport in season 20 episode 3 as a filming location during a road trip through southern Spain in three “inexpensive supercars”. The runway served as a test track to test the maximum speed of the respective super sports cars.

See also

The Castellón airport was inaugurated in 2011, but made only in January 2015 its first commercial flight from.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b LERL - Ciudad Real / Central Airport Information. Entry in Worldwide Airport and FBO / Handler Data (English). Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  2. ↑ AFP / dpa / tine. / Anst .: Spanish ghost airport is for 10,000 euros - not sold. In: FAZ.net . July 17, 2015, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Thomas Urban , Spain ghost airports , sz.de , November 1st of 2019.
  4. ↑ Ciudad Real: Spain's only private airport goes bankrupt. In: aero.de Luftfahrtnachrichten / dpa , June 2, 2010. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  5. ↑ Spain's first major private airport closed In: aero.de Luftfahrtnachrichten / dpa -AFX , December 13, 2011. Accessed on July 18, 2015.
  6. ↑ An airport ruin and a bad suspicion. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 20, 2013, p. 43. ( Online preview in the Genios press archive ; accessed on July 18, 2015. Full text subject to charge.)
  7. ↑ Leo Wieland: Because hardly a passenger came: Spanish ghost airport to be given away. In: FAZ.NET , December 12, 2013; Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  8. ↑ a b airport for sale. ( Memento of December 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: costanachrichten.com , August 2013; Retrieved December 10, 2013.
  9. ↑ Stefan Eiselin: Airport at a bargain price : “Ciudad Real should be the practical alternative to Madrid Barajas. […] Now it is for sale for 100 million euros ”In: aerotelegraph.com , August 26, 2013; Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  10. ↑ Airport in Ciudas Real: Chinese buy bankrupt airport for 10,000 euros. , In: Handelsblatt / dpa , July 17, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2015.