Spain's empty airports (IV): Logroño

The Spanish region of La Rioja is famous worldwide for its great wines and its cellars attract numerous visitors every year, but few get there by plane if we are to judge by the traffic figures at the regional airport Logroño-Agoncillo. The airport was inaugurated in 2003, after an investment of €40 million, and after a few years of growth, peaked in 2007 at 56,000. It has been in falling since then and it currently stands at around 20,000 passengers per year.

There is hardly any regular traffic at the airport, only Air Nostrum operating a regional jet to Madrid-Barajas (MAD), but it is possible that there is not really a critical mass of passengers to sustain more flights, particularly when considering that land transport in the area is quite good (Logroño is in the middle of the Ebro Valley, a major communication line) and Bilbao airport and its much broader choice of flights and frequencies, is 1,5 hours away by car.

In the meantime the airport keeps losing €4,42 million a year, or €220 per passenger, and its debt stands at €52 million.