₹10,000 Crore luxury airport shuts down in 3 years—now dubbed a ‘haunted place’

Madrid (The Uttam Hindu): Imagine the government spending a massive budget of 10,000 crore rupees to build a luxurious airport, only to have it turn into a desolate ruin within just three years. This isn't a fairy tale, but the harsh reality of Spain's Real Ciudad Airport. Once a dream destination to become Europe's largest aviation hub, this airport is now mourning its ruin, and people call it Spain's "ghost airport."

When this airport was inaugurated in 2009, its grandeur was a sight to behold. Built at a cost of approximately ₹11,383 crore (1.1 billion euros), it boasted Europe's longest runway, measuring 4.1 kilometers, and had the capacity to handle 10 million passengers annually. Despite these promising features, the project proved a massive failure, and its failure was largely attributed to its poor location. This state-of-the-art airport was built approximately 200 kilometers from Madrid, the capital of Spain, which proved inconvenient for travelers. It was like someone catching a flight from Delhi but the airport was built in Chandigarh.

According to a report in The Mirror, the government promised a high-speed train from Madrid to the airport, reducing the journey to just one hour. However, the station never came into existence. Due to the lack of connectivity, passenger numbers plummeted so much that airlines, facing mounting losses, gradually discontinued their services. The situation worsened to the point where the last flight departed in 2011, and within just three years, the airport was closed.

After its closure, the airport was plunged into a massive debt of approximately ₹3,100 crore. When it was up for auction, the world was shocked when a Chinese company bid just ₹10 lakh for this ₹11,000 crore project, adding insult to injury. After a lengthy legal battle, the airport was sold in 2018 for a price far below its original cost, approximately ₹580 crore. It reopened in 2019, but not for passengers. Today, this magnificent building is used solely as a warehouse to park, repair, or scrap old and broken aircraft.