Lleida–Alguaire Airport (Catalan: ''Aeroport de Lleida-Alguaire'', Spanish: ''Aeropuerto de Lérida-Alguaire'') is an

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 ...

located in Alguaire,

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

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 ...

; about from the centre of

Lleida Lleida (, ; ; '' see below'') is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital and largest town in Segrià county, the Ponent region and the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It ...

and about from the centre of

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 ...

History

Lleida–Alguaire was designed as a

regional airport A domestic airport is an airport that handles only flights within the same country. Domestic airports do not have customs and immigration facilities and so cannot handle flights to or from a foreign airport. These airports often have short r ...

to provide both passenger and cargo transport to Western Catalonia (the

Ponent Ponent, also known as the Lleida region following the vegueries law, is the westernmost of the eight regions (Vegueria, ''vegueries'') defined by the Regional Plan of Catalonia. It has an area of 5,586 km2, and 365,289 inhabitants as of 2022. ...

region and Catalan Pyrenees),

Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...

and some counties (comarques) in

La Franja La Franja (; "The Strip"; ) is the area of Catalan-speaking territories of eastern Aragon bordering Catalonia, in Spain. It literally means ''"the strip"'' and can also more properly be called (Aragonese Strip), (Western Strip) or (Eastern St ...

. The airport construction project had a budget of 130 million

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

and it was the first airport built and owned by the

Generalitat of Catalonia The Generalitat de Catalunya (; ; ), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia is Self-governance, self-governed as an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is made up of the Parli ...

, via its public-capital company Aeroports de Catalunya. It is also one of the few Spanish airports not owned 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 ...

. The original plan intended for the full redevelopment of the already existing Alfés aerodrome located south of

but due to pressure from ecologist groups this plan never materialised. It was later decided to locate the airport north of the city next to the future A-14 highway because of its convenience. Together the airport and the highway, which ends abruptly a few kilometres north of the airport, have caused endless amounts of controversy over the years as locals consider both projects as fake promises and embezzlement of public funds. The airport was inaugurated on the 17 of January 2010 with the arrival of an

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

from

operated by

Vueling Vueling S.A. (, ) is a List of airlines of Spain, Spanish low-cost airline based at Viladecans in Greater Barcelona with operating bases at Barcelona–El Prat Airport (main); Orly Airport, Paris-Orly Airport in Paris, France; Schiphol Airport, ...

, onboard traveled members of the Catalan authorities and the press. Since then, following the success from other Spanish airports like

Teruel Airport Teruel Airport is an airport near Teruel in the Teruel Province of Spain. Known under the commercial name Plataforma Aeroportuaria-Teruel (PLATA), it was certified for public use by the Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency (AESA) on 5 ...

, Lleida-Alguaire has been working to position itself as an

aircraft maintenance Aircraft maintenance is the performance of tasks required to ensure the continuing airworthiness of an aircraft or aircraft part, including overhaul, inspection, replacement, defect rectification, and the embodiment of modifications, compliance ...

and aircraft storage facility, as well as cooperating with both public and private research projects. In recent years, the airport has also gained popularity as a

flight training Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted under a str ...

location.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

The following table shows total passenger numbers at Lleida–Alguaire Airport from 2010 to date.

Ground transportation

Two new highways, the Autovías A-14 and A-22, provide road access to the airport.

References

External links

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Lleida–Alguaire Airport
at Architecture News Plus Airports established in 2010 Airports in Catalonia Transport in Lleida Transport in Segrià {{Catalonia-airport-stub