Zaragoza Airport (
Aragonese and es, Aeropuerto de Zaragoza; ) is an international
airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
near
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
,
Aragón
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sout ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. It is located west of Zaragoza, west of
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
, and northeast of
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. In addition to serving as a major cargo airport it is also a commercial airport and the home of the
Spanish Air and Space Force
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march = Spanish Air and Space Force Anthem
, mascot =
, anniversaries = 10 December
, equipment ...
15th Group.
History
During the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
(USAF) used the facility as
Zaragoza Air Base
Zaragoza Air Base is a base of the Spanish Air and Space Force located near Zaragoza, Spain. It is located west of Zaragoza, west of Barcelona, and northeast of Madrid. It shares infrastructure with the Zaragoza Airport. in the past, Zaragoza ...
.
The construction work on Zaragoza Airport began in September 1954 with the enlargement and improvement of the existing Spanish Air Force Base located there.
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
engineers upgraded the facility for temporary or intermediate use as a war standby base. The first U.S. construction project included strengthening the existing runway and adding overruns at each end. Work on a new
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...
runway, , with overruns at each end, began in 1956 and was completed in 1958.
Zaragoza was one of three major USAF Cold War airbases in Spain, the others being
Torrejón Air Base
Torrejón Air Base (Base Aérea de Torrejón de Ardoz) is both a major Spanish Air and Space Force base and the co-located Madrid–Torrejón Airport, a secondary civilian airport for the city and metropolitan area of Madrid, east-northeast of th ...
near
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
and
Morón Air Base
Morón Air Base is located at in southern Spain, approximately southeast of the city of Seville. The base gets its name from the nearby town of Morón de la Frontera while is located inside Arahal municipality territory.
Currently the base i ...
near
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
.
The airport was also used by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
as a contingency landing site for the
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...
in the case of a
Transoceanic Abort Landing
Space Shuttle abort modes were procedures by which the nominal launch of the NASA Space Shuttle could be terminated. A pad abort occurred after ignition of the shuttle's main engines but prior to liftoff. An abort during ascent that would result ...
(TAL). Zaragoza was chosen as a NASA Space Shuttle TAL site due to its long runway, which needs be longer than 7,500 feet, and its pleasant weather. The base also has a military-grade navigation system called a
TACAN
A tactical air navigation system, commonly referred to by the acronym TACAN, is a navigation system used by military aircraft. It provides the user with bearing and distance (slant-range or hypotenuse) to a ground or ship-borne station. It is a mor ...
—"Tactical Air Navigation"—that can adapt to the special guidance devices NASA used with its shuttles.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
Cargo
Statistics
Access
Currently, the airport is connected to the city center by a bus line (501), which goes from the Puerta del Carmen square, downtown, to the airport, also stopping at the city's main railway station:
Zaragoza-Delicias. The station is an important hub for long-distance trains,
AVE
''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...
high-speed trains and the commuter line of
Cercanías Zaragoza
Cercanías Zaragoza is the name given to the Renfe operated commuter train service in and around the city of Zaragoza, in Aragon, Spain.
There is currently one line, running from Miraflores to Casetas. Trains run once an hour off-peak, with ex ...
, which takes passengers underground through the city and overground in the metropolitan area.
References
External links
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{{authority control
Airports in Aragon
Buildings and structures in Zaragoza
Transport in Zaragoza
Space Shuttle Emergency Landing Sites