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Spain to close up to 30 state-run airports
25 May 2012 @ 13:34

The Telegraph is reporting that Spain is planning to close 30 of it's 47 state run airports in an attempt to reduce costs. This includes airports such as Badajoz and Huesca. According to the Telegraph:

Some of the airports have no scheduled flights yet are fully staffed and operational in what has come to symbolise the reckless public spending projects that have left Spain crippled with debt.

Now the ministry of industry and AENA, the state-run company that controls the nation's airports, are considering plans to reduce operating hours at three quarters of the airports to include only those when flights are due or with a skeleton staff to operate in an emergency.

Among the worst performers are Badajoz airport, near the Portuguese border in western Spain, which saw its last commercial flight take-off in January.

In Huesca, a town in northern Spain billed as the "gateway to the Pyrenees", local authorities have subsidised the rare passengers flying in, just 2,781 of them in the whole of 2011, spending an estimated €1,600 on each traveller through its terminal last year. The fully staffed terminal in Huesca, including numerous restaurants, are open year-round even though the commercial flights bringing skiers to the region only operate during the winter months.

In all, there are 20 airports that handle fewer than 100,000 passengers a year, well below the estimated half a million they need to be profitable.

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4 Comments

steone said:
28 May 2012 @ 16:21

Once again we see reported the total waste of money by Spain on their airports. Does this now mean that all new airports not yet functioning will be delayed? What about Corvera in Murcia that is "nearly" ready for use but doesn't have all the permissions yet. Will this be a reprieve for San Javier for the time being? One does hear rumors that Corvera has "run out of money" yet updating of San Javier is going ahead. The only answer I can give is Viva Espana.

rob said:
28 May 2012 @ 19:10

san javier has not only just rebuilt all the arrivals departure halls but installed a new and expensive baggage handling system
no way will they have spent all this if they were going to close down and revert to being a purely military airport
Corvera was susuposed to open this summer and to be completely finished and all ready for the first flights with some airplane operators already signed up
if you look at the schedules all flights in the region are still going to be using San javier

there is a serious problem with how Spain has planned their infrstructure look at the Toll Motorway from Vera to San javier mostly empty zero traffic /who in their right mind built this motorway where did they think people would be going

steone said:
30 May 2012 @ 20:12

Following a thread on Corvera Airport on eye on spain it now appears that Corvera Airport is now dead in the water. Finished. Caput. Not going ahead. What a wicked if not criminal waste of money. Will anyone be bought to task for wasting public money? Answers in a brown envelope please.

Janet Babbel said:
05 June 2012 @ 21:45

I loved Murcia airport it is so easy to get to but now I can not get any flights from Basel or Zurich and have to fly to Alicante. I hate the motorway from Orihuela it is windy, bumpy and down right dangerous in certain places. I wish that there would be more flights to Murcia for the French, German and Swiss population. I was amazed to hear that they wanted to have a new airport some where in the sticks. If there was a train staion available I could have understood the move. I think that Alicante airport has wasted money that would have been better spent on a rail link to Alicante every 30 minutes. These are my opinions.