Santiago de Compostela Airport

Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport (Galician: Aeroporto de Santiago-Rosalía de Castro, Spanish: Aeropuerto de Santiago-Rosalía de Castro) , previously named Lavacolla Airport and also known as Santiago de Compostela Airport, is an international airport serving the autonomous community and historical region of Galicia in Spain. It is the 2nd busiest airport in northern Spain after Bilbao Airport. It has been named after the Galician romanticist writer and poet Rosalía de Castro, since 12 March 2020.

The airport is located in the parish of Lavacolla, 12 km from Santiago de Compostela and handled 3,236,619 passengers in 2022. It is the focus city of Vueling in the northwest Iberian Peninsula, and Ryanair's only focus city in Northern Spain. The Christian pilgrimage route of the Camino de Santiago runs near the airport.

History

The airport was set up by a group of aviation enthusiasts in October 1932 and two months directors were chosen to select where the airport was going to be built. In 1935 construction work started at the airport where two years later on 27 September 1937 the first scheduled flight from Santiago de Compostela took place. After the Spanish Civil war, political prisoners (who were held in the concentration camp of Lavacolla) were forced to work in the construction of the airport.

In 1969 a new terminal was built at the airport. It later underwent several expansions, including a remodeling in 1993.

Iberia launched a seasonal link to New York City, the first transatlantic route from Santiago de Compostela, in June 1980. The carrier operated the flight with Boeing 747 aircraft. Four months later, Viasa added non-stop service to Caracas using McDonnell Douglas DC-10s. In 1981, a cargo terminal was built, giving the airport capacity to handle cargo flights.

Viasa shut down in 1997, but Avensa resurrected the route to Caracas two years later.

On 13 October 2011, a new passenger terminal opened at the airport.

Terminal

The airport currently has one operating terminal. The old terminal at Santiago de Compostela airport opened in 1969 and was often expanded. The old terminal closed on the night of 13 October 2011 when operations transferred to the new terminal.

The new terminal at Santiago de Compostela Airport officially opened on 13 October 2011 and passenger operations transferred there the following day. It is adjacent to the old terminal and has a size of 74,000 sq m. It has 22 check-in desks, 3 security checkpoints, 4 baggage carousels, and 13 gates of which 5 have airbridges. The baggage hall is split into two zones, one for Schengen flights and one for Non-Schengen. It can handle as many as 4 million passengers per year. The terminal is due to be expanded in the future. This includes adding another five airbridges to five of the current gates as well as three more baggage carousels and an expanded shopping area.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport:

Statistics

During the early 2000s, numbers increased significantly at the airport, from 1.24 million in 2002 to peak at 2.46 million in 2011. Because of the financial crisis in Spain, those numbers decreased to 2.1 million in 2014. Cargo has decreased significantly over the last ten years. The Spanish economic recovery in the mid-2010s and the rise of Santiago de Compostela as an international destination are again increasing passenger numbers, breaking the 3 million mark for the first time in 2022.

Route statistics

RankCityPassengers % Change
2021 / 22
Carriers
1 Madrid502,555 69.8%Iberia, Iberia Express, Ryanair
2 Barcelona392,985 48.4%Ryanair, Vueling
3 Palma de Mallorca191,822 87.9%Ryanair, Vueling
4 Sevilla181,847 88.6%Ryanair, Vueling
5 Alicante169,979 131.8%Ryanair, Vueling
6 Málaga169,507 62.3%Ryanair, Vueling
7 Gran Canaria166,349 82.6%Iberia Regional, Ryanair, Vueling
8 Valencia150,865 89.6%Ryanair, Vueling
9 Tenerife South119,910 52.5%Ryanair
10 Lanzarote113,654 43.6%Ryanair, Vueling

RankCityPassengers% Change
2021 / 22
Carriers
1 London Stansted110,726 192.1%Ryanair
2 Geneva94,455 77.9%easyJet Switzerland
3 London Gatwick68,362 390.5%easyJet UK, Vueling
4 Dublin58,783 727.4%Aer Lingus, Ryanair
5 Milan Bergamo56,092 195.5%Ryanair
6 Basel34,377 25.1%easyJet Switzerland
7 Paris Beauvais30,827 -Ryanair
8 Bologna30,623 585.1%Ryanair
9 Paris Charles de Gaulle30,356 -Vueling
10 Frankfurt29,335 23.2%Lufthansa

RankCountryPassengers% Change
2021 / 22
Scheduled Carriers
1 Spain2,475,901 76.5%Iberia, Iberia Express, Iberia Regional, Ryanair, Vueling
2 United Kingdom204,025 292.8%easyJet UK, Ryanair, Vueling
3 Switzerland152,801 67.1%easyJet Switzerland, Edelweiss, Vueling
4 France115,120 427.2%Ryanair, Transavia, Vueling
5 Italy87,409 265.2%Ryanair
6 Germany70,251 108.7%Lufthansa, Ryanair
7 Ireland58,783 727.4%Aer Lingus, Ryanair
8 Belgium40,283 674.1%Ryanair, Vueling
9 Netherlands23,084 84.4%Vueling
10 Egypt2,835 - -

RankCarriersPassengers% Change
2021 / 22
1 Ryanair1,565,453 124.12%
2 Vueling1,020,584 84.0%
3 Iberia Express302,777 133.7%
4 easyJet Switzerland128,596 59.0%
5 Iberia Regional50,364 100.8%
6 Iberia41,146 58.9%
7 Aer Lingus34,572 386.8%
8 Lufthansa29,325 22.3%
9 Transavia France22,377 474.80%
10 easyJet UK13,605 8,677.4%

Accidents and Incidents

  • On 3 March 1978, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63 operated by Iberia from Madrid–Barajas Airport with 211 passengers and 11 crew members, registration EC-BMX. The aircraft touched down far down the runway after a high approach, aquaplaned off the runway, dropped into a hollow 20m deep and caught fire. The crash was settled with 70 injured people, 10 of them seriously injured, and no fatalities.
  • On 7 June 2001, a Beechcraft B300C Super King Air 350, registration F-GOAE, departed from Le Mans-Arnage Airport (LME), France, to Santiago De Compostela Airport (SCQ), Spain, on a cargo flight according to instrument flight rules. Near the destination airport, the meteorological conditions were reported to be good, and the crew requested a visual approach to runway 17, even though the active runway was 35. Once cleared to land, the aircraft encountered a fog patch and from this moment it began a high ate descent (2000 to 3000 ft/min). A minute after entering an unexpected and unforeseen fog patch, the aircraft struck some trees in level flight and with an airspeed of 148 kt. The wings and engines detached from the fuselage, and they dragged along a scrubland area until they came to a stop. The crew suffered minor injuries and the aircraft was completely destroyed.
  • On 2 August 2012, an Airnor Cessna 500 Citation I, registration EC-IBA, flying from Asturias crashed whilst on approach to the airport with the loss of both crew members.

External links

Text taken from Wikipedia - Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport under the CC-BY-SA-3.0 on April 13, 2023
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