Spain is not the only European country that has wasted money on superfluous airports – Germany’s done it, too.
On the 2nd of December the brand-new but non-operative airport of Ciudad Real was put up for auction at a minimum bid of 100 million euros – there were no takers. Bear in mind that it had cost the taxpayers 1,000 million to build. Over on the eastern coast of Spain there is another one that is only used as a race track and an unofficial recreation area for wild rabbits.

But before you all start tutting about the reckless southern European states, such as Spain, it is worth remembering that Kasel-Calden Airport, right in the heart of Germany, has no flights in or out during the whole winter. In fact, from April to November there is no normal airport activity, yet the airport workers turn up everyday as if it were operative.

This airport in the German state of Hesse was inaugurated in April 2013, costing 271 millions and so far has a loss of 4.7m euros. The state-owned company had forecast 100,000 passengers a year but it didn’t get passed 30,000.

What went wrong, besides very low demand? Well the airline that was going to operate out of Kasel-Calden Airport went bust. And the low demand, because like in the cases of superfluous airports in Spain, there are other long-standing airports nearby.

Although the regional government couldn’t have known that the airline was going to go down the plug hole, they did know right back in 2008 that people didn’t want it and were saying that it was totally unnecessary.

Hey, but let’s not put all the blame on the Regional Government of Hesse because all the following German regional airports are operating in the red: Dortmund, Padeborn, Friedrichshafen, Saarbrücken, Zweibrücken, Hahn, Erfurt, Dresden, Bremershafen, Braunschweig-Wolsfburg and Münster. Some of them are only 60 kilometres from another airport, so no surprises there.

Perhaps you would like to drop that into your next conversation about irresponsible Spaniards compared to the thrifty Germans?

(News Spain/Germany)