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.[3]

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.[4][5] Four months later, Viasa added non-stop service to Caracas using McDonnell Douglas DC-10s.[4] 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.[4][6]

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.[7] 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.[8]

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.[11]

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%
2023	3,537,445	9.2%	25,903	1.7%	4,818	0.7%

Traffic figures by month

	2023 Passengers	2024 Passengers	Passengers % Change
January	214,616	199,165	7.2
February	194,488	202,439	4.1
March	244,771	258,809	5.7
April	311,142	-	-
May	318,868	-	-
June	323,156	-	-
July	398,477	-	-
August	402,745	-	-
September	341,407	-	-
October	336,438	-	-
November	208,707	-	-
December	242,630	-	-

Route statistics

Diagram of the airport

Busiest domestic routes at Santiago de Compostela Airport (2023)[12]

Rank	City	Passengers	% Change 2022 / 23	Carriers
1	Madrid	452,694	9.9%	Iberia, Iberia Express, Ryanair
2	Barcelona	421,812	7.33%	Ryanair, Vueling
3	Palma de Mallorca	232,783	21.3%	Ryanair, Vueling
4	Sevilla	227,710	25.2%	Ryanair, Vueling
5	Alicante	207,273	21.9%	Ryanair, Vueling
6	Málaga	205,109	21.0%	Ryanair, Vueling
7	Gran Canaria	165,711	0.4%	Iberia Regional, Ryanair, Vueling
8	Valencia	148,088	1.8%	Ryanair
9	Tenerife South	141,378	17.9%	Ryanair
10	Lanzarote	133,952	17.8%	Ryanair, Vueling

Busiest International routes at Santiago de Compostela Airport (2023)[12]

Rank	City	Passengers	% Change 2022 / 23	Carriers
1	London Stansted	108,089	2.4%	Ryanair
2	London Gatwick	106,043	55.1%	easyJet UK, Vueling
3	Geneva	94,419	0.0%	easyJet Switzerland
4	Dublin	73,780	25.5%	Aer Lingus, Ryanair
5	Milan Bergamo	64,772	15.5%	Ryanair
6	Basel	62,598	82.1%	easyJet Switzerland
7	Paris Charles de Gaulle	47,908	57.8%	Vueling
8	Amsterdam	33,741	46.2%	Vueling
9	Charleroi	29,509	27.1%	Ryanair
10	Bologna	28,229	7.8%	Ryanair

Busiest countries of destination at Santiago de Compostela Airport (2023)[12]

Rank	Country	Passengers	% Change 2022 / 23	Scheduled Carriers
1	Spain	2,691,205	8.7%	Iberia, Iberia Express, Iberia Regional, Ryanair, Vueling
2	United Kingdom	241,829	18.5%	easyJet UK, Ryanair, Vueling
3	Switzerland	184,665	20.8%	easyJet Switzerland, Edelweiss, Vueling
4	France	111,788	2.9%	Ryanair, Transavia, Vueling
5	Italy	93,907	7.4%	Ryanair
6	Ireland	73,794	25.5%	Aer Lingus, Ryanair
7	Germany	53,245	24.2%	Lufthansa, Ryanair
8	Belgium	40,391	0.3%	Ryanair, Vueling
9	Netherlands	33,786	46.3%	Vueling
10	Cape Verde	2,796	1,470.8%	-

Busiest Carriers at Santiago de Compostela Airport (2023)[12]

Rank	Carriers	Passengers	% Change 2022 / 23
1	Ryanair	1,679,495	7.3%
2	Vueling	1,236,346	21.1%
3	Iberia	224,928	446.6%
4	easyJet Switzerland	156,951	22.0%
5	Iberia Express	79,236	73.8%
6	Iberia Regional	49,319	2.1%
7	Aer Lingus	37,561	8.6%
8	Lufthansa	27,525	6.3%
9	easyJet UK	12,704	6.6%
10	Air Europa	6,199	{{}}

• 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.[13]
• 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.[14]
• 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.[15]

Media related to Santiago de Compostela Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website