A Coruña Airport , formerly known as Alvedro Airport, is the

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

serving the Galician city of

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

in northwestern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The airport is located in the municipality of Culleredo, approximately from the city center. It is a part of the network of airports managed by

Aena ENAIRE is the air navigation manager in Spain, certified for the provision of enroute, approach and aerodrome control services. As a Statutory corporation, public corporate entity attached to the Ministry of Public Works (Spain), Spanish Minis ...

, a Spanish state-owned company responsible for airport management. Air traffic control is provided by Ferronats.

History

Early years

On 11 September 1953, the

Council of Ministers of Spain The Council of Ministers () is the main collective decision-making body of the Government of Spain, and it is exclusively composed of the Prime Minister, the deputy prime ministers and the ministers (22 as of 2024). Junior or deputy minister ...

ordered the urgent construction of an airport to serve the city of

. This was the first airport to serve the area, as the hilly topography and meteorological conditions in the region made construction difficult. At the time, the only air service to the province of Galicia was through the Lavacolla Airport in

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...

, which opened in 1935. The first airport was built on the Alvedro meseta in the municipality of Culleredo. The original air field was very sparse; subsequent projects included the construction of parking facilities and a terminal. In 1961, radio, and electric monitoring facilities were constructed. In 1962, a terminal building was constructed, and landing lights and other signals were installed on the runway. At the same time, the legislature of A Coruña ordered the construction of a road to connect the airport with the cities of A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela. In 1963, a services building was added to the airport. The construction was completed in May 1963, when the airport was opened to national commercial traffic. The inauguration of the airport took place on 25 May 1963, when the first commercial airliner arrived from

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. This first flight was operated by the Spanish Aviaco airline. During 1964, Aviaco operated a

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

- Santander-

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Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

line served by Convair 440s. The routing proved to be spectacularly unpopular and unprofitable, and was discontinued after a year of service. A brief attempt in 1971 to run an identical routing was equally unsuccessful. By the end of the 1960s, the airport had begun receiving charter flights from Switzerland and London, England. A customs office was opened in 1979, and an air traffic control room was added in 1990. A number of improvements were made during the 1980s, including an increase of runway gradation of 1 degree 12 minutes and the installation of an Instrument Landing System (ILS).

Development since the 1990s

By 1994, yearly passenger numbers had surpassed 259,000. Further expansion of the airport and its facilities, including a new terminal building, as well as the urbanization of the surrounding area has prompted continuous growth and the increasing popularity of the airport. In 2001, the airport installed

jet bridge A jet bridge is an enclosed connector which most commonly extends from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, and in some instances from a port to a boat or ship, allowing passengers to board and disembark without heading outside and being exp ...

s and a cargo terminal. Currently the airport has a single runway (03/21), long, and is capable of supporting up to 12 take-offs and landings per hour. Current and future projects include the expansion of parking facilities, an upgrade of the ILS system from Category II to Category III, a short runway expansion, and expanded aircraft parking facilities.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at A Coruña Airport:

Statistics

Busiest routes

Accidents and incidents

*On 16 August 1973, Aviaco Flight 118 crashed while trying to land at Alvedro Airport. All 85 people on board the aircraft plus one person on the ground were killed.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:A Coruna Airport Coruna Airports established in 1963 Buildings and structures in A Coruña Transport in A Coruña