By Ralph Anker, editor, anna.aero
Ryanair’s inaugural flight from London Stansted on 25 May was celebrated by José Lopes, airlines development director for Aeropuerto Central Ciudad Real; Luis Fernández-Mellado, Ryanair’s sales & marketing manager for Spain, Portugal, Malta and Morocco; and Ralph Anker, editor, anna.aero.
Since opening to commercial traffic in December 2008, Spain’s Aeropuerto Central Ciudad Real has, until recently, welcomed only domestic scheduled services operated by a mixture of Air Nostrum (on behalf of Iberia) and airberlin. These two carriers served Barcelona, Gran Canaria and Palma de Mallorca and generated just over 50,000 passengers for the airport in 2009. At the end of May, Ryanair became the first airline to operate international scheduled services to and from the airport when it began operating three flights per week to London Stansted. The airline is hoping that at least two additional Ryanair services will be announced this year. Unfortunately, Air Nostrum’s domestic flights were dropped during 2009, while airberlin’s Palma service was terminated at the end of May.
Terminal designed for 2.5 million passengers; rail station planned
Ciudad Real’s terminal is on three levels and has been designed to cater for 2.5 million passengers annually. At present, Ryanair’s London Stansted service is the only scheduled route.
The 4,000m runway is among the longest in Europe, while the multi-level terminal building has been designed to handle up to 2.5 million annual passengers. The Seville to Madrid high-speed Ave train line runs right past the airport and there are plans for trains to stop at the airport in future, with the covered moving walkway bridge connection from the terminal to a planned new station having already been built. However, at present, a bus, taxi or hire car is needed to transfer passengers to nearby Ciudad Real from where the Ave train can whisk passengers to Madrid in under one hour.
The airport is well prepared to accept private aircraft and VIPs and as the gateway to the La Mancha region famous for its hunting in winter, the airport has welcomed a number of wealthy clients. The area is also famous as the setting of the adventures of Don Quixote and at one point the airport was going to include his name in the title.
A sign of things to come? The departure boards created as a backdrop to the filming of a Spanish TV drama at the airport focus primarily on Spanish destinations. However, note the Sydney flight number, which appears to pay homage to Oceanic Flight 815 from the TV series Lost.
Airport gets sneak preview of what the future might hold
One recent revenue generating activity at the airport was to allow film crews to use the airport as a set for a Spanish TV drama. With meticulous attention to detail, the airport departure screens showed a range of fictitious departing flights (mostly domestic) on a variety of made-up airlines. However, it may be a while before the airport gets a service to Sydney.
