Two retired members of the Grau de Castellón flying club have the first people to land an aircraft at Castellón airport, three years and nine months after the inauguration of this infamous ‘White Elephant’.
The two pilots apparently noticed that the airport was actually open and thought ‘why not?’. After a quick look round the airport they departed about half an hour later.
The Spanish Air Safety Agency (AESA) finally awarded the license that the airport needed to begin operating.
The airport has already cost the taxpayer over €170 million and has been closed to the public since 2011, when central authorities stopped the politician Carlos Fabra – former airport president, head of the provincial authority of Castellón and leader of the provincial branch of the Popular Party (and now in jail for tax fraud) – from using the airport for electoral purposes.
The project was originally touted as one which would not cost the taxpayer a cent as it was to be financed by the private sector. In reality, the taxpayer has paid through the nose for an unnecessary airport with neither planes nor passengers, one of the many excesses of the boom years.