Spain sells off €1BILLION white elephant airport that no-one wanted to fly from for €100million
Thursday, August 8, 2013 @ 9:41 AM
A Spanish airport built at a cost of more than €1billion could be all yours for a fraction of the price less than 18 months after it closed when its parent company fell into financial difficulties.
The Cuidad Real Airport could be yours for as little as €100million (£86million) after the judge in charge of its administration ruled that it should be sold off.
But there is a catch.
The new owner of the airport, once designed to cater for Spain's booming economy to serve both city and coast via a high speed rail link, will have to pay off around €529million (£454million) in debt.
Creditors owned cash include Air Nostrum and Air Berlin as well as those whose homes were bought to make way for the transport hub, which has sat empty since it closed in April 2012, just four years after it opened.
More than 70 workers who were made redundant when the terminal closed will have to be paid off along with a €2million bill to the auctioneers.
Projected to take the overflow from Madrid's Barajas airport, some 150 miles to the north, Ciudad Real's flagship transport hub was to be a symbol of modern Spain's affluence.
But sadly it has proved to be one of a number of many white elephants for the nation.
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