El Robledo

The closure was the result of a catastrophic economic failure. Key factors included:
1. **Lack of Demand:** The airport was built with a capacity for 2.5 million passengers per year, but it failed to attract significant traffic, serving only a few thousand passengers in its peak year.
2. **Competition:** It could not compete with the established Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, located just 200 km away, or the high-speed AVE train line which offered a fast and efficient connection to Madrid.
3. **Economic Crisis:** The airport opened in December 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis and the collapse of Spain's property bubble, which severely depressed travel and investment.

The airport is **no longer closed**. After several failed auctions, it was purchased by the company Ciudad Real International Airport SL (CRIA) and officially reopened for operations on September 12, 2019. It now operates with a completely different business model focused on industrial aviation rather than passenger traffic. Its current primary functions are:
- **Aircraft Storage:** It has become a major aircraft 'boneyard', especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when numerous airlines (including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Iberia) stored their grounded fleets there.
- **Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO):** The site hosts facilities for aircraft maintenance and servicing.
- **Cargo and Logistics:** It is being developed as a private logistics and air cargo hub.
- **Executive Aviation:** It also serves private and executive jet traffic.

The airport, officially known as **Ciudad Real Central Airport** (or Don Quijote Airport) with the ICAO code **LERL**, was the first international private airport in Spain. It became a prominent symbol of the country's excessive spending and construction boom prior to the 2008 economic crisis, famously earning the title of a 'ghost airport'. Built at a cost exceeding €1 billion, it featured one of Europe's longest runways (4,100 meters), capable of handling the largest aircraft like the Airbus A380. During its short active life (2008-2011), it handled a few routes from low-cost carriers like Ryanair and Vueling, as well as private and cargo flights, but operations were unsustainable. Its abandoned state made it a popular filming location for movies and TV shows, including BBC's 'Top Gear'.

The airport is already open and fully operational. Future prospects are not focused on a return to large-scale passenger services. Instead, the owners plan to continue developing the site as a strategic multimodal logistics platform. The focus is on expanding its capacity for air cargo, aircraft maintenance, long-term aircraft parking, and aircraft dismantling and recycling, leveraging its extensive infrastructure and uncongested airspace.