Airport Ciudad Real, aka LERL and 'Don Quijote', 21 June 2009. Africa Twin / wikipedia.org

By Matt Mushalik
30 June 2011 Still looking for a 2nd Sydney airport? Want to spend millions on consultants? You can have it easier than that. Find out about the latest peak oil ignorant airport project by just typing 3 words on the internet: “Ciudad Real Airport”, formerly known as Don Quijote or Madrid South Airport, 160 km from Madrid (Sydney – Canberra is 240 km for those who think Canberra can serve as a 2nd airport for Sydney). We read in Wikipedia: The airport has turned out to be a financial disaster so far. Due to poor planning and overoptimism on the part of large financial investors major deficiencies in the early planning stages were overlooked. A single airline has signed up to fly out of the airport and none of the potential airlines that were considered were actually interested in utilizing the airport. The actual passenger traffic has measured in the low thousands, compared to the anticipated traffic of up to 10 million. The future outlook looks equally bleak. The airport has contributed significantly to the financial trouble of the creditor institutions. […]

Don Quijote and the (n)ever growing air traffic