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Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport Aeropuerto de Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Aeroporto de Santiago–Rosalía de Castro
IATA: SCQ ICAO: LEST WMO: 8041
Summary
Airport type	Public/Military
Owner/Operator	Aena
Serves	Santiago, Galicia, Spain
Location	Santiago de Compostela
Focus city for	Ryanair Vueling
Built	1932
Elevation AMSL	1,213 ft / 370 m
Coordinates	42°53′47″N 08°24′55″W / 42.89639°N 8.41528°W / 42.89639; -8.41528
Website	www.aena.es/en/santiago-rosalia-de-castro.html
Map
SCQLocation in GaliciaShow map of GaliciaSCQSCQ (Spain)Show map of Spain
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 17/35 10,499 3,200 Asphalt
Statistics (2023)
Passengers 3,537,445 Passengers change 22-23 9.2% Aircraft movements 25,903 Movements change 22-23 1.7%

Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport (Galician: Aeroporto de Santiago-Rosalía de Castro, Spanish: Aeropuerto de Santiago-Rosalía de Castro) (IATA: SCQ, ICAO: LEST), previously named Lavacolla Airport and also known as Santiago de Compostela Airport, is an international airport serving the autonomous community and historic nationality of Galicia in Spain. It is the biggest and busiest airport in Galicia and the 2nd busiest airport in northern Spain after Bilbao Airport. It has been named after the Galician romanticist writer and poet Rosalía de Castro, since 12 March 2020.

The airport is located in the parish of Lavacolla, 12 km from Santiago de Compostela and handled 3,537,445 passengers in 2023. It is the focus city of Vueling in the northwest Iberian Peninsula, and Ryanair's only focus city in Northern Spain. The Christian pilgrimage route of the Camino de Santiago runs near the airport.

History

The airport was set up by a group of aviation enthusiasts in October 1932 and two months directors were chosen to select where the airport was going to be built. In 1935 construction work started at the airport where two years later on 27 September 1937 the first scheduled flight from Santiago de Compostela took place. After the Spanish Civil war, political prisoners (who were held in the concentration camp of Lavacolla) were forced to work in the construction of the airport.

In 1969 a new terminal was built at the airport. It later underwent several expansions, including a remodeling in 1993.

In June 1980, Iberia launched a seasonal flight to New York City on a Boeing 747. This was Santiago de Compostela's first transatlantic route. Four months later, Viasa added non-stop service to Caracas using McDonnell Douglas DC-10s. In 1981, a cargo terminal was built, giving the airport capacity to handle cargo flights. Viasa shut down in 1997, but Avensa resurrected the route to Caracas in March 1999.

On 13 October 2011, a new passenger terminal opened at the airport.

Terminal

The airport currently has one operating terminal. The old terminal at Santiago de Compostela airport opened in 1969 and was often expanded. The old terminal closed on the night of 13 October 2011 when operations transferred to the new terminal.

The new terminal at Santiago de Compostela Airport officially opened on 13 October 2011 and passenger operations transferred there the following day. It is adjacent to the old terminal and has a size of 74,000 sq m. It has 22 check-in desks, 3 security checkpoints, 4 baggage carousels, and 13 gates of which 5 have airbridges. The baggage hall is split into two zones, one for Schengen flights and one for Non-Schengen. It can handle as many as 4 million passengers per year. The terminal is due to be expanded in the future. This includes adding another five airbridges to five of the current gates as well as three more baggage carousels and an expanded shopping area.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport:

Statistics

During the early 2000s, numbers increased significantly at the airport, from 1.24 million in 2002 to peak at 2.46 million in 2011. Because of the financial crisis in Spain, those numbers decreased to 2.1 million in 2014, with cargo decreasing significantly during that period. The Spanish economic recovery in the mid-2010s and the rise of Santiago de Compostela as an international destination are again increasing cargo and passenger numbers, breaking the 3 million passenger mark for the first time in 2022.

Traffic figures by year

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

	Passengers handled	Passengers % Change	Aircraft movements	Aircraft % Change	Freight (tonnes)	Freight % Change
2000	1,332,893	-	19,660	-	6,773	-
2001	1,281,334	3.86%	19,084	2.92%	6,228	8.04%
2002	1,240,730	3.16%	17.362	9.02%	5,716	8.22%
2003	1,381,826	11.37%	18,454	6.28%	5,318	6.96%
2004	1,580,675	14.39%	21,593	17.00%	4,938	7.14%
2005	1,843,118	16.60%	25,693	18.98%	3,805	22.94%
2006	1,994,519	8.21%	24,719	3.79%	2,587	32.01%
2007	2,050,172	2.79%	24,643	0.30%	2,749	6.26%
2008	1,917,466	6.47%	21,945	10.94%	2,418	12.04%
2009	1,944,068	1.38%	20,166	8.10%	1,988	17.78%
2010	2,172,869	11.76%	21,252	5.38%	1,964	1.20%
2011	2,464,330	13.41%	22,322	5.03%	1,787	9.01%
2012	2,194,611	10.94%	19,511	12.59%	1,815	1.56%
2013	2,073,055	5.53%	18,688	4.21%	1,929	6.28%
2014	2,083,873	0.52%	19,431	3.97%	2,095	8.60%
2015	2,296,248	10.20%	20,540	5.70%	2,311	10.10%
2016	2,510,740	9.30%	21,227	3.60%	2,936	27.04%
2017	2,644,925	5.34%	21,520	1.38%	2,693	8.28%
2018	2,724,750	3.01%	21,839	1.50%	3,019	12.10%
2019	2,903,427	6.56%	22,396	2.55%	3,201	6.02%
2020	935,394	67.8%	10,949	51.1%	2,981	6.9%
2021	1,653,821	76.8%	15,375	40.4%	4,938	65.6%
2022	3,236,619	95.7%	25,458	65.6%	4,853	1.7%
2023	3,537,445	9.2%	25,903	1.7%	4,818	0.7%

Traffic figures by month

	2023 Passengers	2024 Passengers	Passengers % Change
January	214,616	199,165	7.2
February	194,488	202,439	4.1
March	244,771	258,809	5.7
April	311,142	342,004	9.9
May	318,868	404,301	26.8
June	323,156	346,200	7.1
July	398,477	388,610	2.5
August	402,745	384,610	4.5
September	341,407	327,246	4.1
October	336,438	305,244	9.3
November	208,707	235,917	13.0
December	242,630	-	-

Busiest routes

Busiest international routes from SCQ (2023)

Rank	Destination	Passengers	Change 2022 / 23
1	London-Stansted	108,089	2%
2	London-Gatwick	106,043	55%
3	Geneva	94,419	0%
4	Dublin	73,780	26%
5	Bergamo	64,772	15%
6	Basel/Mulhouse	62,598	82%
7	Paris-Charles de Gaulle	47,908	58%
8	Amsterdam	33,741	46%
9	Charleroi	29,509	27%
10	Bologna	28,229	8%
11	Zurich	27,648	7%
12	Frankfurt	27,530	6%
13	Edinburgh	27,165	13%
14	Memmingen	25,641	19%
15	Beauvais	25,193	18%
16	Marseille	17,376	19%
17	Bordeaux	17,348	40%
18	Brussels	10,873	36%
19	Paris-Orly	3,312	87%
20	Sal	2,796	New route
Source: Estadísticas de tráfico aereo

Busiest domestic routes from SCQ (2023)

Rank	Destination	Passengers	Change 2022 / 23
1	Madrid	452,694	10%
2	Barcelona	421,812	7%
3	Palma de Mallorca	232,783	21%
4	Seville	227,710	25%
5	Alicante	207,273	22%
6	Málaga	205,109	21%
7	Gran Canaria	165,711	0%
8	Valencia	148,088	2%
9	Tenerife-South	141,378	18%
10	Lanzarote	133,952	18%
11	Tenerife-North	119,519	22%
12	Bilbao	79,267	34%
13	Fuerteventura	74,004	29%
14	Zaragoza	26,931	New route
15	Ibiza	22,318	24%
Source: Estadísticas de tráfico aereo

Ground transportation

Road

The airport is linked with Santiago de Compostela (13 km) by the Autovía A-54. This motorway, although some sections are yet to be built and opened, also connects the airport with Lugo (94.5 km), where it connects with the Autovía A-6, providing toll-free motorway access to the rest of Spain; and to the French border through the Autovía A-8 that intersects with the Autovía A-6 near Lugo. Nearby Autopista AP-9 connects the airport directly to A Coruña (66 km), Ferrol (88 km), Pontevedra (75 km), Vigo (100 km) and the Portuguese border. Ourense (116 km) is reachable through the Autopista AP-53 that connects with the Autopista AP-9.

There are several major car rental companies at the airport. The airport has more than 5,000 short and long-term covered parking spaces in the new terminal building. In addition, there are several low-cost, long-term private parking facilities around the airport.

Bus services

A city bus service connects the airport with the center of Santiago de Compostela and the bus and train terminal in the city regularly. From the station in Santiago de Compostela, private coach operators run direct services in a multiple daily basis to most cities and towns in Galicia, including A Coruña, Ferrol, Lugo, Ourense, Pontevedra and Vigo, as well as long-distance services to the rest of Spain, and international services. In addition, three regional services link the airport directly to A Coruña, to Lugo, including several stops in the French Way of the Camino de Santiago, and to the A Mariña coastal area (home to As Catedrais beach) in the province of Lugo.

Rail

There are no rail facilities at the airport. However, the train station in Santiago de Compostela, located 12 km. away, is connected to the airport by the city bus service every 30 minutes. There are combined available train+bus tickets to and from the airport. The train station in Santiago de Compostela has regional, medium and long-distance high-speed Alvia services to most cities in Galicia, including A Coruña, Ferrol, Ourense, Pontevedra, Vilagarcía and Vigo; and further to Madrid Chamartín and the rest of Spain.

Foot and bike

The Camino de Santiago runs next to the runway of the airport. This is the busiest and final journey in the Camino de Santiago that goes through the famous Monte do Gozo. There are dedicated pathways for both pedestrians and bikers towards the city. The walking distance from the runway to the Cathedral is estimated at 10.90 km.

Accidents and Incidents

• On 3 March 1978, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63 operated by Iberia from Madrid–Barajas Airport with 211 passengers and 11 crew members, registration EC-BMX. The aircraft touched down far down the runway after a high approach, aquaplaned off the runway, dropped into a hollow 20m deep and caught fire. The crash was settled with 70 injured people, 10 of them seriously injured, and no fatalities.
• On 7 June 2001, a Beechcraft B300C Super King Air 350, registration F-GOAE, departed from Le Mans-Arnage Airport (LME), France, to Santiago De Compostela Airport (SCQ), Spain, on a cargo flight according to instrument flight rules. Near the destination airport, the meteorological conditions were reported to be good, and the crew requested a visual approach to runway 17, even though the active runway was 35. Once cleared to land, the aircraft encountered a fog patch and from this moment it began a high ate descent (2000 to 3000 ft/min). A minute after entering an unexpected and unforeseen fog patch, the aircraft struck some trees in level flight and with an airspeed of 148 kt. The wings and engines detached from the fuselage, and they dragged along a scrubland area until they came to a stop. The crew suffered minor injuries and the aircraft was completely destroyed.
• On 2 August 2012, an Airnor Cessna 500 Citation I, registration EC-IBA, flying from Asturias crashed whilst on approach to the airport with the loss of both crew members.

References

1. Galicia
2. Deaño Santiago, Carlos (12 March 2020). "Rebautizo oficial del aeropuerto como Rosalía de Castro". El Correo Gallego. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
3. "Miles de presos construyeron obras civiles y militares en Galicia hasta 1960". 13 March 2010.
4. ^ Lorenzo, S. (24 March 2019). "Los chárter maquillan una oferta estival en Lavacolla con menos rutas exteriores". La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 September 2022.
5. "Iberia inaugura un vuelo semanal Santiago-Nueva York". La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish). 15 June 2018. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
6. "Viasa's Routes to Be Shared Between Venezuelan Carriers". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones Newswires. 8 October 1998. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
7. New Terminal
8. New Terminal Expansion
9. "IBERIA NW24 Madrid – Europe Frequency Changes – 26MAY24". Aeroroutes.
10. "Iberia Expands Seasonal Funchal Service in 3Q23". Aeroroutes.
11. "Ryanair NS23 Network Additions Summary – 26MAR23". Aeroroutes.
12. "Annual Statistics" (in Spanish). Aena Aeropuertos S.A. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
13. ^ "Inicio". aena.es. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
14. "ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63 EC-BMX Santiago de Compostela Airport (SCQ)".
15. "ASN Aircraft accident Beechcraft B300C Super King Air 350 F-GOAE Santiago de Compostella (SCQ)".
16. Santiago de Compostela accident

External links

Media related to Santiago de Compostela Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website

• Spain
• Aviation

• Buildings and structures in Santiago de Compostela
• Airports in Galicia (Spain)
• Santiago de Compostela
• Airports established in 1935