Of the 48 regional commercial airports built in the debt-ridden country in less than 20 years, only 11 make a profit.
Huesca, opened in 2007 for tourists heading to the central Pyrenees, was a personal initiative by a local politician. He hoped it would bring prosperity to the region.
Its last commercial flight took off in April and the next is not due to land until January 2012. The airport, just 45 miles from another at Zaragoza, lost six million euros last year. Its shops are closed and the site is deserted apart from a small staff. There is a lone security guard and an air-traffic controller is on stand-by for private planes.
Economics expert Germa Bel i Queralt told leading Madrid daily newspaper El Pais: “Spain doesn’t have a transportation policy but a brand policy. We dazzle the world with the best terminals.
“We wanted to teach the world a lesson and here we are with the highest unemployment rate and AENA, the aviation agency that loses the most money in the world.” Castellon, on the east coast, opened in March within 100 miles of three thriving airports and despite the fact that no aircraft can arrive because it is awaiting landing permits. The restriction is likely to remain for at least eight months.
New Corvera airport in Murcia is unlikely to open at all. The regional government insisted work should go ahead although the site is within 19 miles of flights to San Javier and 80 miles from Alicante, Spain’s sixth biggest airport.
Ciudad Real, built as a second airport for Madrid although it is 118 miles away, handles just 100,000 passengers a year, and staff work three months on and three months off. Inaugurated in 2008, it was a failure from day one, despite being forecast to welcome 2.5million passengers in its first five years.
As part of a series of measures to try to pull Spain out of its deep economic problems, Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero promised partially to privatise its airports.