Proposals outlined for second Madrid airport

The facility at Casarrubios would be privately managed, as was originally intended at Corvera airport in Murcia

A consortium named Air City Madrid Sur has revealed that it is putting the final touches to a proposal to create a second, privately owned, major airport to serve the city of Madrid by expanding the aerodrome in Casarrubios del Monte, in the province of Toledo around 30 kilometres from the city itself, at an initial investment cost of 148 million euros.

The projected opening date for the infrastructure is 2023, and by attracting mainly low-cost airlines the consortium estimates that it could reach a figure of 7 million passengers per year within a decade. Last year, by way of comparison, over 53 million passengers passed through the terminal buildings at the existing Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, but Barajas is considered to be nearing its maximum capacity.

Given that London is served by five airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and City), and all other major European capitals have at least two, it may seem surprising that until now Madrid has been serviced by only one, but previous projects to create a rival to Barajas have failed to prosper. One such proposal was to create a new airport at El Álamo, just a couple of kilometres from Casarrubios, but this failed along with the “Eurovegas” project: as a result the aerodrome of Casarrubios, which opened in 1992, continues to be busy but without commercial passenger flights.

In fact, at present there are 70,000 take-offs and landings per year, most of them training or pleasure flights or for other purposes such as aerial photography.

But that could change dramatically in the near future, according to Javier Ruedas of Air City Madrid Sur, who explains that studies of the project are well advanced in both Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha (within which the province of Toledo lies). At the same time, studies are being made into the compatibility of airspace with Barajas, but given that the latter is on the other side of the capital hopes are high that this will prove feasible.

Due to its proximity to the regional boundaries, 70 per cent of the new airport would be in Madrid and 30 per cent in Toledo, and the 148-million-euro Budget is considered sufficient to purchase the extra land needed and build a new 3.2-kilometre runway, a control tower, a terminal building, hangars, maintenance premises and road access from the A-5 and R-5 motorways.

Readers with an interest in the Costa Cálida will be fairly sceptical over the idea of a privately built and managed airport, following the numerous delays in the opening of the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera. However, that facility is now finally scheduled to host its first commercial take-offs and landings on 15^th January 2019 (although only after a new management contract was awarded to the partially State-owned company Aena), and it may be that the Madrid consortium is able to show that such ventures are in fact viable and can be completed in the timescale proposed!

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