Madrid An abandoned airport in Spain worth €1billion to build, was sold at a bankruptcy auction for €10,000. Ciudad Real's La Mancha airport, also known as Don Quixote airport, opened in 2008 and opened to international flights in 2010. It went bankrupt and closed down
Madrid
An abandoned airport in Spain worth €1billion to build, was sold at a bankruptcy auction for €10,000.
Ciudad Real’s La Mancha airport, also known as Don Quixote airport, opened in 2008 and opened to international flights in 2010. It went bankrupt and closed down in 2012 as it failed to attract interest from airlines, after which the site has been abandoned.
According to local press reports, the airport invited bids at a bankruptcy auction - but they have only received one bid.
It is reported that a consortium of Chinese investors under the banner of ‘Tzaneen International’ placed a bid of €10,000 - a fraction of the 1 billion Euro it cost to build.
The bid has not been topped by any other investors, which means that if no other bids are placed by September, they will own the site for the bargain price.
The airport was originally put up for auction with a €100m price tag last year. After it failed to attract any interest, it was reduced to €80m and subsequently €40m, but failed again.
The Chinese consortium told to a local press that they are planning to make the airport a point of entry for cargo coming into Europe from international markets, especially from China.
The Ciudad Real airport is one of the so called ‘ghost airports’ which have been abandoned in the country after ambitious construction projects have been unable to withstand the financial crash.
