Teruel Airport is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

near

Teruel Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 35,675 in 2014 making it the least populated provincial capital in the country. It is noted for its harsh climate, with ...

in the

Teruel Province Teruel (Catalan: ''Terol'' ) is a province of Aragon, in the northeast of Spain. The capital is Teruel. It is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Castellón, Valencia (including its exclave Rincón de Ademuz), Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Za ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Known under the commercial name Plataforma Aeroportuaria-Teruel (PLATA), it was certified for public use by the

Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency The Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency, also known by the acronym AESA (Spanish: ''Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea''), is the civil aviation authority for Spain. The agency is based in Madrid, where it occupies offices on the Pase ...

(AESA) on 5 February 2013. Permission for air operations was granted by the AESA on 28 February 2013. The airport serves as an

aircraft maintenance Aircraft maintenance is the performance of tasks required to ensure the continuing airworthiness of an aircraft or aircraft part, including overhaul, inspection, replacement, defect rectification, and the embodiment of modifications, compliance ...

and aircraft storage facility for the company. PLATA is owned by a consortium formed by the

Government of Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sout ...

and Teruel City Council, and does not belong to Aena Group, the Spanish airports management company. The dry climate makes the airport suitable for long-term aircraft storage, with capacity for 250 aircraft. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, approximately 100 grounded planes were parked there. The airport includes a main building with a

control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

as well as a basic

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...

, but is not equipped to handle passenger traffic. An

aircraft rescue and firefighting Aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) is a type of firefighting that involves the emergency response, mitigation, evacuation, and rescue of passengers and crew of aircraft involved in aviation accidents and incidents. Airports with schedule ...

(ARFF) station is located next to the terminal. Also on site are three main maintenance and part-removal hangars (the original one for Boeing 747s and the newest for Airbus A340s).

PLD Space Propulsion Test Facilities

In August 2018, Spanish launch service provider

PLD Space Payload Aerospace S.L. (PLD Space) is a Spanish company developing two partially-reusable launch vehicles called Miura 1 and Miura 5. Miura 1 is designed as a sounding rocket for sub-orbital flights to perform research or technology development ...

signed a concession with the Teruel Airport Consortium for 13,337 m² of space at the airport to test

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload ( spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and ...

technology. The agreement covered 25 years, with an optional 10-year extension. PLD Space was to invest

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

1M in infrastructure for the construction of a new

control room A control room or operations room is a central space where a large physical facility or physically dispersed service can be monitored and controlled. It is often part of a larger command center. Overview A control room's purpose is produc ...

, offices, access paths, a

rocket engine A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accorda ...

maintenance hangar and a new

test bench A test bench or testing workbench is an environment used to verify the correctness or soundness of a design or model. The term has its roots in the testing of electronic devices, where an engineer would sit at a lab bench with tools for measurem ...

to test its

Miura 1 Miura 1 (previously called Arion 1) is a suborbital recoverable launch vehicle developed by the Spanish company PLD Space. It is planned to be the first recoverable launch vehicle in Europe. The first launch is currently scheduled for the 15 J ...

rocket. Over the previous three years, testing had been conducted on a short-term contract basis.PLD SPACE signs a 25-year concession for rocket engine testing at Teruel Airport
SpaceDaily, 2018-08-07

References

External links

Official site

Teruel Airport

Tarmac Aerosave Company

Airports in Aragon Teruel Aircraft boneyards {{Spain-airport-stub