After Spain spent €1bn to build an airport which was scarcely used, they sold it to the Chinese for €10,000.
Ciudad Real airport, in central Spain 100 miles south of Madrid, will be converted by the new owners into a global freight hub for the Chinese market.
With great hope, the airport was built and named after Don Quixote. It features a runway long enough to land the world’s largest passenger carrier, Airbus A380, and a passenger terminal for 10m visitors a year. Ciudad Real’s population is just 75,000.
It opened in 2010 and closed in 2012 with debts of €529m. As a consequence, it remains in good condition although it has been deserted for some years.
The only bid for it came from Tzaneen International, a consortium of Asian and British investors, set up only in March. It said “there are several Chinese companies that want to make the airport the European point of entry for cargo”. The company says it is prepared to invest up to €100m in the project.
Last year it went to auction at €100m, but no one volunteered. Since then the price has gradually been reduced until it returned to auction with no reserve price.
Tzaneen said some of the cargo would be semi-manufactured items which could be finished in the La Mancha area. Unemployment there is nearly 30%.
The airport’s biggest creditors are savings banks which are owed €233m. One of them, Castilla-La Mancha, owned 68% of the scheme and went bankrupt although its directors were reported to have received payoffs in the millions. People who had their land purchased compulsorily are claiming an additional €106m.
Ciudad Real is not the only ghost airport left from those wild days. Lleida in Catalonia and Castelló near Valencia remain unused.
