| Ciudad Real Central Airport Aeropuerto Central Ciudad Real |
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|---|---|---|---|
| IATA: none – ICAO: LERL – LID: CQM [1] | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Private | ||
| Operator | CR Aeropuertos | ||
| Serves | Ciudad Real and Puertollano | ||
| Location | Ciudad Real, Spain | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 636 m / 2,086 ft | ||
| Website | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| m | ft | ||
| 10/28 | 4,000 | 13,123 | Asphalt |
Ciudad Real Central Airport (ICAO: LERL) is an airport in South Ciudad Real (Spain). It is located adjacent to the A43 highway and a short distance from the AP41 toll highway and will have a connection to the Madrid-Seville high speed train line, making it the first Spanish airport accessed via the AVE system, 50 minutes from downtown Madrid, 50 minutes from Córdoba, and less than 2 hours from Seville and Málaga. It is the first international private airport in Spain. The airport construction project had a budget of 1.1 billion euro.
It was previously known as Don Quijote Airport and South Madrid Airport.
Contents |
The airport has a single runway (10/28), 4,000 m (13,123 ft) long and 60 m (197 ft) wide servicing national and international commercial flights (regular and charter). Part of the installations are dedicated to private and sport flights, and it will have an area for maintenance, a heliport and an industrial zone of over 8 km². The passenger terminal is planned to process a maximum of 10 million passengers a year, and its cargo facilities are planned to process a maximum of 47,000 tonnes a year.
The airport is now open.
Effective 30 October 2011, there are no scheduled commercial flights to or from Ciudad Real
The airport has turned out to be a financial disaster so far. Due to poor planning and overoptimism on the part of large financial investors, major deficiencies in the early planning stages were overlooked. A single airline has signed up to fly out of the airport and none of the potential airlines that were considered were actually interested in utilizing the airport. The actual passenger traffic has measured in the low thousands, compared to the anticipated traffic of up to 10 million. The future outlook looks equally bleak. The airport has contributed significantly to the financial trouble of the creditor institutions.
On the 25th of May 2010 Ryanair announced they would begin the first international service into the airport with 3x weekly flights from London Stansted these ran up until the 11th of November 2010, the low cost carrier flew approximately 22,000 passengers into the airport in the 6 months years they served the route. This link was an important international link for the city and the province of Ciudad Real but also to the community of Castilla-La Mancha. The route operated 3 times weekly, but due to a breakdown in trade agreements with Ryanair and financial difficulties of the airport, the route was cancelled. 20 jobs were lost in the process.
The Spanish low cost carrier Vueling also served the airport with flights to Barcelona El Prat Airport and Palma de Mallorca Airport, flights to the airport ceased on the 29th of October, 2011. Air Berlin also served the Palma De Mallorca route as well ceasing service on the 30th of May 2010. The Spanish regional carrier Air Nostrum in 2009 also flew from Barcelona El Prat Aiport and Gran Canaria Airport.