LERL
Ciudad Real International Airport
VFR
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Name
Ciudad Real International Airport
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ICAO / IATA / GPS
LERL / CQM / LERL
- Type
- Restriction
- Region
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Timezone
6:54 pm (CET)
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Municipality
Ciudad Real
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Coordinates
38° 51′ 23″ N 3° 58′ 11″ E
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Elevation
2’120 ft (646 m MSL)
About Ciudad Real International Airport
Ciudad Real International Airport or CRIA (IATA: CQM, ICAO: LERL), previously known as Central Airport CR, Don Quijote Airport and South Madrid Airport, is an international airport and long-storage facility situated south of Ciudad Real in Spain. Constructed at a cost of €1.1 billion, it was opened in 2009, when it became the first private international airport in Spain. It was featured on the British television series Top Gear (season 20, episode 3) and gained popularity later on, thanks to the show.
Operations at the site ran for three years until April 2012, when its previous management company filed for bankruptcy and went into receivership, after the last flight operator, low-cost airline Vueling, withdrew its last route from the airport. It remained closed for seven years until reopening in September 2019, however without any scheduled passenger traffic.