Zaragoza Airport

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Aeropuerto de Zaragoza
Base Aérea de Zaragoza
Zaragoza airport.jpg
Characteristics
ICAO code LEZG
IATA code ZAZ
Coordinates

41 ° 40 ′ 3 "  N , 1 ° 2 ′ 25"  W Coordinates: 41 ° 40 ′ 3 "  N , 1 ° 2 ′ 25"  W
Height above MSL 263 m (863  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 11 km west of Zaragoza
Street A2 N125
Local transport bus
Basic data
opening 1940
operator Aena
Terminals 1
Passengers 489,064 (2018)
Air freight 166,831 t (2018)
Flight
movements 		8,991 (2018)
Capacity
( PAX per year) 		2 million
Runways
12L / 30R 3032 m × 45 m asphalt
12R / 30L 3718 m × 45 m asphalt

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The Zaragoza airport ( Spanish Aeropuerto de Zaragoza , IATA code : ZAZ , ICAO code : LEZG ) is an international commercial airport in the autonomous community of Aragon in northeastern Spain . It is located on the N-125 national road about eleven kilometers west of Saragossa . The airport is the home base of Zorex and is also used by the Spanish Air Force as the Base Aérea de Zaragoza . It used to be used by NASA as an emergency landing site for the space shuttle in the event of a TAL (transoceanic abort mode) .

history

Today's airport has its roots in the Aeródromo de Garrapinillos , which consisted of two airfields, Sanjurjo and Valenzuela, each about one square kilometer in size and four kilometers apart. The former was the airfield closer to downtown Zaragoza. It was opened during the first phase of the Spanish Civil War . Parts of the German fighter squadron flew in October 1936, before the actual Condor Legion deployed from Saragossa. The National Spaniards and their allies used the sites from October 1937, initially as a base for He-51 fighters and from the end of 1937 also for He-111 bombers of Kampfgruppe 88 . The latter mainly used Sanjurjo as its main base, while the Spanish national and also the Italian aviation units mainly operated from Valenzuela. After the Battle of Teruel , the air forces were used in the Aragon offensive , the further advance of the Franco troops towards the Levant , the Battle of the Ebro and the final fighting in Catalonia .

After the war, both places were used both militarily and civilly from 1940. In September 1947 the first domestic flights were carried out from Sanjurjo and in the following spring the first international destinations were served from Valenzuela. In 1949 the runway was enlarged and in 1951 Aviaco started its first domestic scheduled flights.

Later during the Cold War , the base was used as one of three airfields, next to Morón near Seville and Torrejón near Madrid , by the United States Air Force (USAF). The expansion of Valenzuela began in 1954, the existing runway was enlarged and another runway was completely rebuilt. A squadron of interceptors, the 431st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, was located here between 1958 and 1965 . She was initially equipped with F-86D Saber and belonged to the Strategic Air Command (SAC).

In 1960, the base was transferred to the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), and the squadron converted to the F-102A / TF-102B Delta Dagger that year. At the same time, Spain continued to use Sanjurjo for civil and military purposes, since 1961 with international line connections and in 1965 Sanjurjo was given the current name Aeropuerto de Zaragoza .

In the 1970s and 1980s, the US base was home to the 406th Tactical Fighter Training Wing , which had no aircraft of its own. As part of the Gulf War, the site was once again an important transshipment point for the USAF in 1990/1991, before American flight operations ended at the end of 1991 and base operations were transferred back to Spain in April 1992.

Ala 31 has also been stationed on the "Spanish" north-east side since April 1973 , which until 1978 only existed as the 301st squadron ( Escuadrón 301 ). The arrival of the C-130H took place between December 1973 and the beginning of 1980, with the first units arriving in 1976 with air refueling equipment. The Ala 15 has been located here since December 1985 and has been operating the F / A-18 since July 1986.

In 2012, the European Air Transport Command planned the multinational European Air Transport Training for the first time , which has taken place annually in Zaragoza since then. For use on unpaved slopes, a. a small makeshift airfield north of Ablitas ' used. Two years later, the first European Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Course (EAATTC) took place here, these courses are now taking place here regularly and in 2017 a permanent coordination center was opened for this purpose.

The NATO Tiger Meet took place for the first time in May 2016 in Zaragoza.

Military use

The base currently (2020) houses the following (flying) associations:

  • Ala 15 (15th Squadron ) with three squadrons of tactical multi -role combat aircraft EF-18A + / B + Hornet , the Escuadróns 151 , 152 and 153 , since July 1986
  • Ala 31 (31st Squadron ) with two squadrons of tactical transport aircraft, the Escuadróns 311 , equipped with Airbus A400M Atlas since November 2016 , and 312 , equipped with C / KC-130H / H-30 Hercules since December 1973 , the latter also being used for aerial refueling . The C / KC-130 are expected to be decommissioned at the end of 2020.
  • European Tactical Airlift Center , coordination center for operational training for European transport pilots, since June 2017

There are also a number of other non-flying formations.

Airlines and Destinations

The airport is served by Air Europa , Binter Canarias , Ryanair , Vueling Airlines and Wizz Air . Destinations are Brussels-Charleroi , Bucharest , Cluj-Napoca , Gran Canaria Airport , Lisbon , London-Stansted , Milan-Bergamo , Palma de Mallorca and Tenerife-North .

Cargo airlines

Cargo flights are operated at this airport by AirBridge Cargo , British Airways World Cargo , Emirates SkyCargo and TNT Airways with destinations in Moscow, Bahrain, Dubai, Liege, Hong Kong and London-Stansted. The cargo airline Zorex is based here.

Traffic figures

Source: Aena
Traffic figures for the Aeropuerto de Zaragoza 2000–2018
year Passenger volume Air freight ( tons ) Flight movements
2018 489.064 172.939 8,991
2017 438.035 142.185 7,965
2016 419,529 110.141 7,269
2015 423.873 85,741 7,051
2014 418,580 86,390 7,042
2013 457,595 71,661 7,597
2012 551.406 71.197 9,301
2011 751.097 48,647 11,970
2010 605.912 42,543 12,714
2009 528.313 36,890 12,750
2008 594,952 21,439 14,584
2007 512.184 20,151 14,757
2006 435.881 5,929 11,408
2005 381,849 3,855 9,906
2004 215.213 9,160 9,386
2003 228.069 8,366 10,748
2002 228,557 3,145 10,655
2001 222.167 2,195 10,454
2000 246.720 3,614 10,932

See also

Web links

Commons : Zaragoza Airport  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b History. Aena.es , accessed January 10, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b Introduction. Aena.es , accessed November 6, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Estadísticas de tráfico aéreo. Aena.es , accessed November 6, 2019 (Spanish).
  4. ↑ Airbus entrega el primer avión A400M a España que estará en la Base de Zaragoza, Heraldo, November 17, 2016
  5. ↑ How A400M Atlas spanned the globe during coronavirus response, Flightglobal, June 5, 2020
  6. ↑ European Tactical Airlift Center Opens in Zaragoza, homepage of the European Defense Agency, June 8th 2017
  7. ↑ Airport destinations. Aena.es , accessed November 6, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b Estadísticas de tráfico aéreo. Aena.es , accessed January 10, 2019 (Spanish).