Huesca-Pirineos is the archetype of a ghost airport. Without regular flights, cargo operations or a pilot school to breathe some life into it, only its 14 employees and 276 passengers paraded through its corridors last year: an average of 0.76 per day, according to air traffic statistics. from Aena. Very poor data for a million-dollar infrastructure for which alternative uses are unsuccessfully sought.
The agony of the airport comes from afar. Since it ran out of commercial flights in 2012, Huesca has the dubious honor of being the aerodrome with the lowest passenger transfer in all of Spain in nine of the last eleven years, with 2016 marking historical lows (95 travelers). Without being so disastrous, last year it made up the figures in the discount thanks to the 98 visitors that the Almería-Barbastro soccer match brought in December.
From Aena they assure that the limited movement in 2023 comes from “general aviation operations, pilot schools and flying clubs, in addition to the helicopter operations of the Civil Guard’s mountain rescue service.” Regarding the passengers, they point out that they are people who have used the facilities “on commercial, charter and air taxi flights, or as passengers on general aviation flights.”
The initiative to transform this old airfield from the 1930s into a modern airport is attributed to Rodolfo Aínsa, former senator of the PP (1982-2008) and former president of the Provincial Council of Huesca (1995-1999), who maintained close ties with the then Minister of Development, Francisco Álvarez-Cascos. In total, the investment was around 45 million euros, although the addition of other concepts such as the adaptation of the roads raises it to 60 million.
On paper, the idea was to attract masses of skiers to the Pyrenees, with slides that reached up to 160,000 annual passers-by. But since it began flying in 2007, the passenger record was set by 6,228 in 2009, when Pyrenair and Thomson Airways operated to destinations such as A Coruña, Palma, Madrid or London. After saying goodbye to commercial flights, only the promotion of Huesca to the First Division was able to energize its runways, never exceeding 1,500 annual visitors.
Looking to the future, Aena assures that for now there are no plans for any company to operate regularly, although they are in contact with companies in the sector “for other types of activities.” The most feasible thing would be for a pilot training school to take over from Top Fly (2006-2011) and Airways Aviation (2015-2020), both closed due to financial problems. “It is ideal for providing instruction,” says instructor Marcos Vila, co-founder of the Barbatus Aeronautics project, which in 2022 applied to open a new pilot school as the first step towards a large aeronautical campus. However, that bet did not gather the support of the authorities, so they considered the project “finished.”
Despite its lack of activity, its closure is not on the table. Aena emphasizes that they have specific efficiency programs for this type of facilities that ensure that their maintenance represents “a minimum amount” thanks to services that are provided jointly with the rest of the airports. In April, the arrival of a new director, engineer Borja García, is scheduled to take place. He remains to see if he is able to take it out of the dry dock and give it some life.
