Overview
- Built during Spain’s mid-2000s construction boom for more than €1.1 billion, Ciudad Real featured a 4.1 km runway and a terminal sized for up to 10 million passengers.
- Opened in 2009 about 200 km from Madrid, the airport never received its promised high-speed rail station link to the capital.
- Air Berlin, Air Nostrum and Ryanair withdrew early routes, and Vueling exited in late 2011, leaving no scheduled passenger flights within three years.
- The operator accumulated over €300 million in debt, entered bankruptcy, and all operations ceased by April 2012.
- Following failed sale attempts including a rejected €10,000 bid, the site sold in 2018 for about €56 million and reopened in 2019 for storage, maintenance and aircraft dismantling, later hosting parked jets during the pandemic.