What went wrong with famous ‘Ghost’ airport in Madrid? It cost some €1.1 billion ($1.5 billion) to build and was designed to handle 10 million passengers a year, and it also has a runway long enough to land an A380. But the airport at Ciudad Real, some 200km south of Madrid, hasn’t received a commercial flight since 2011, so no wonder why it went up for auction. The bidding will close on December 27 and a starting price is €100 million ($137 million).
This symbol of the Spain’s wasteful spending ahead of an economic downturn operated its first flight in December 2008 but passenger traffic never took off and CR Aeropuertos, the operator of the terminal, went into bankruptcy in June 2012 with debts of around €300 million ($412 million).
For many months the only flights were those of private jets, reportedly including Prince Harry on his way to a boar hunt on land nearby owned by the Duke of Westminster. Also, so far it’s only been used for one film. In 2012 Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar used it for a week to film part of his latest film I’m So Excited!
