Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport

The airport was set up by a group of aviation enthusiasts in October 1932 and two months directors were chosen to select where the airport was going to be built. In 1935 construction work started at the airport where two years later on 27 September 1937 the first scheduled flight from Santiago de Compostela took place. After the Spanish Civil war, political prisoners (who were held in the concentration camp of Lavacolla) were forced to work in the construction of the airport.[2]

In 1969 a new terminal was built at the airport. It later underwent several expansions, including a remodeling in 1993.

In June 1980, Iberia launched a seasonal flight to New York City on a Boeing 747. This was Santiago de Compostela's first transatlantic route.[3][4] Four months later, Viasa added non-stop service to Caracas using McDonnell Douglas DC-10s.[3] In 1981, a cargo terminal was built, giving the airport capacity to handle cargo flights. Viasa shut down in 1997, but Avensa resurrected the route to Caracas in March 1999.[3][5]

On 13 October 2011, a new passenger terminal opened at the airport.

The airport currently has one operating terminal. The old terminal at Santiago de Compostela airport opened in 1969 and was often expanded. The old terminal closed on the night of 13 October 2011 when operations transferred to the new terminal.

The new terminal at Santiago de Compostela Airport officially opened on 13 October 2011 and passenger operations transferred there the following day. It is adjacent to the old terminal and has a size of 74,000 sq m. It has 22 check-in desks, 3 security checkpoints, 4 baggage carousels, and 13 gates of which 5 have airbridges. The baggage hall is split into two zones, one for Schengen flights and one for Non-Schengen. It can handle as many as 4 million passengers per year.[6] The terminal is due to be expanded in the future. This includes adding another five airbridges to five of the current gates as well as three more baggage carousels and an expanded shopping area.[7]

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport:

During the early 2000s, numbers increased significantly at the airport, from 1.24 million in 2002 to peak at 2.46 million in 2011. Because of the financial crisis in Spain, those numbers decreased to 2.1 million in 2014. Cargo has decreased significantly over the last ten years. The Spanish economic recovery in the mid-2010s and the rise of Santiago de Compostela as an international destination are again increasing passenger numbers, breaking the 3 million mark for the first time in 2022.[12]

Traffic figures by year

Annual passenger traffic at SCQ airport. See Wikidata query.

	Passengers handled	Passengers % Change	Aircraft movements	Aircraft % Change	Freight (tonnes)	Freight % Change
2000	1,332,893	-	19,660	-	6,773	-
2001	1,281,334	3.86%	19,084	2.92%	6,228	8.04%
2002	1,240,730	3.16%	17.362	9.02%	5,716	8.22%
2003	1,381,826	11.37%	18,454	6.28%	5,318	6.96%
2004	1,580,675	14.39%	21,593	17.00%	4,938	7.14%
2005	1,843,118	16.60%	25,693	18.98%	3,805	22.94%
2006	1,994,519	8.21%	24,719	3.79%	2,587	32.01%
2007	2,050,172	2.79%	24,643	0.30%	2,749	6.26%
2008	1,917,466	6.47%	21,945	10.94%	2,418	12.04%
2009	1,944,068	1.38%	20,166	8.10%	1,988	17.78%
2010	2,172,869	11.76%	21,252	5.38%	1,964	1.20%
2011	2,464,330	13.41%	22,322	5.03%	1,787	9.01%
2012	2,194,611	10.94%	19,511	12.59%	1,815	1.56%
2013	2,073,055	5.53%	18,688	4.21%	1,929	6.28%
2014	2,083,873	0.52%	19,431	3.97%	2,095	8.60%
2015	2,296,248	10.20%	20,540	5.70%	2,311	10.10%
2016	2,510,740	9.30%	21,227	3.60%	2,936	27.04%
2017	2,644,925	5.34%	21,520	1.38%	2,693	8.28%
2018	2,724,750	3.01%	21,839	1.50%	3,019	12.10%
2019	2,903,427	6.56%	22,396	2.55%	3,201	6.02%
2020	935,394	67.8%	10,949	51.1%	2,981	6.9%
2021	1,653,821	76.8%	15,375	40.4%	4,938	65.6%
2022	3,236,619	95.7%	25,458	65.6%	4,853	1.7%

Traffic figures by month

	2022 Passengers	2023 Passengers	Passengers % Change
January	130,796	214,616	64.1
February	136,467	194,488	42.5
March	190,548	244,771	28.5
April	292,643	311,142	6.3
May	307,168	318,868	3.8
June	323,409	323,156	0.1
July	364,186	398,477	9.4
August	374,867	402,745	7.2
September	338,643	341,407	0.8
October	332,020
November	211,853
December	234,019

Route statistics

Diagram of the airport

Busiest domestic routes at Santiago de Compostela Airport (2022)[13]

Rank	City	Passengers	% Change 2021 / 22	Carriers
1	Madrid	502,555	69.8%	Iberia, Iberia Express, Ryanair
2	Barcelona	392,985	48.4%	Ryanair, Vueling
3	Palma de Mallorca	191,822	87.9%	Ryanair, Vueling
4	Sevilla	181,847	88.6%	Ryanair, Vueling
5	Alicante	169,979	131.8%	Ryanair, Vueling
6	Málaga	169,507	62.3%	Ryanair, Vueling
7	Gran Canaria	166,349	82.6%	Iberia Regional, Ryanair, Vueling
8	Valencia	150,865	89.6%	Ryanair, Vueling
9	Tenerife South	119,910	52.5%	Ryanair
10	Lanzarote	113,654	43.6%	Ryanair, Vueling

Busiest International routes at Santiago de Compostela Airport (2022)[13]

Rank	City	Passengers	% Change 2021 / 22	Carriers
1	London Stansted	110,726	192.1%	Ryanair
2	Geneva	94,455	77.9%	easyJet Switzerland
3	London Gatwick	68,362	390.5%	easyJet UK, Vueling
4	Dublin	58,783	727.4%	Aer Lingus, Ryanair
5	Milan Bergamo	56,092	195.5%	Ryanair
6	Basel	34,377	25.1%	easyJet Switzerland
7	Paris Beauvais	30,827	-	Ryanair
8	Bologna	30,623	585.1%	Ryanair
9	Paris Charles de Gaulle	30,356	-	Vueling
10	Frankfurt	29,335	23.2%	Lufthansa

Busiest countries of destination at Santiago de Compostela Airport (2022)[13]

Rank	Country	Passengers	% Change 2021 / 22	Scheduled Carriers
1	Spain	2,475,901	76.5%	Iberia, Iberia Express, Iberia Regional, Ryanair, Vueling
2	United Kingdom	204,025	292.8%	easyJet UK, Ryanair, Vueling
3	Switzerland	152,801	67.1%	easyJet Switzerland, Edelweiss, Vueling
4	France	115,120	427.2%	Ryanair, Transavia, Vueling
5	Italy	87,409	265.2%	Ryanair
6	Germany	70,251	108.7%	Lufthansa, Ryanair
7	Ireland	58,783	727.4%	Aer Lingus, Ryanair
8	Belgium	40,283	674.1%	Ryanair, Vueling
9	Netherlands	23,084	84.4%	Vueling
10	Egypt	2,835	-	-

Busiest Carriers at Santiago de Compostela Airport (2022)[13]

Rank	Carriers	Passengers	% Change 2021 / 22
1	Ryanair	1,565,453	124.12%
2	Vueling	1,020,584	84.0%
3	Iberia Express	302,777	133.7%
4	easyJet Switzerland	128,596	59.0%
5	Iberia Regional	50,364	100.8%
6	Iberia	41,146	58.9%
7	Aer Lingus	34,572	386.8%
8	Lufthansa	29,325	22.3%
9	Transavia France	22,377	474.80%
10	easyJet UK	13,605	8,677.4%

• On 3 March 1978, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63 operated by Iberia from Madrid–Barajas Airport with 211 passengers and 11 crew members, registration EC-BMX. The aircraft touched down far down the runway after a high approach, aquaplaned off the runway, dropped into a hollow 20m deep and caught fire. The crash was settled with 70 injured people, 10 of them seriously injured, and no fatalities.[14]
• On 7 June 2001, a Beechcraft B300C Super King Air 350, registration F-GOAE, departed from Le Mans-Arnage Airport (LME), France, to Santiago De Compostela Airport (SCQ), Spain, on a cargo flight according to instrument flight rules. Near the destination airport, the meteorological conditions were reported to be good, and the crew requested a visual approach to runway 17, even though the active runway was 35. Once cleared to land, the aircraft encountered a fog patch and from this moment it began a high ate descent (2000 to 3000 ft/min). A minute after entering an unexpected and unforeseen fog patch, the aircraft struck some trees in level flight and with an airspeed of 148 kt. The wings and engines detached from the fuselage, and they dragged along a scrubland area until they came to a stop. The crew suffered minor injuries and the aircraft was completely destroyed.[15]
• On 2 August 2012, an Airnor Cessna 500 Citation I, registration EC-IBA, flying from Asturias crashed whilst on approach to the airport with the loss of both crew members.[16]

Media related to Santiago de Compostela Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website