La Seu d'Urgell Airport

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Airport La Seu d'Urgell, ( official name: Aeroport Pyrenees - la Seu d' Urgel ) is a general aviation airport owned by the Government of Catalonia ( Generalitat de Catalunya). Operator is the company Aéroports Publics de Catalunya ( SLU).

The airport is located in Catalonia south of the town of La Seu d' Urgell twelve kilometers south to the border of Andorra on the mountain Ensiula between the towns of Mont Ferrer i Castellbò and Ribera d' Urgellet in the comarca of Alt Urgell.

History

The beginnings of aviation on the mountain Ensiula go back to the year 1931. Jaume Nadal Maimó i bought a plane from the French manufacturer Henri Farman with Hispano -Suiza engine and set up an airline with scheduled flights Barcelona -Andorra. At this time the airport had a dirt runway. 1932 a hangar and a terminal was built. By the death of Jaume Nadal, who has stopped because the heirs, the airline did not want to continue funding.

In 1975, the aviation enthusiast and Industrial Josep Tàpies i Betriu the airfield and built it with the help of the Bank Desarrollo del Alto Urgel SA from. The runway 04 /22 was the first solid surface for a length of approximately 1300 meters. In 1980, the construction works were completed and the airport was operational. Because the authorization procedure, the commissioning was delayed. In 1982 was the opening with a flight of the airline Aviaco between Barcelona -El Prat Airport and La Seu d'Urgell. Although Avico had planned more lines to Madrid and also to France had to be discontinued due to the lack of economic viability of the line service. 1984, the commercial traffic was abandoned and used the airfield only by private airplanes. 2007, the total closure of the airfield on the hill for safety reasons. In 2008, the airfield was acquired by the Catalan Government. 2009, a construction contract for the renovation work has been awarded. Flight operations resumed after conversion on June 4, 2010.

In October 2011, test flights took place with the newly developed turboprop regional airliner ATR 72-600 by the manufacturer Avions de Transport Régional on the airfield instead.

On 27 June 2012, a decision of the government agencies involved was to further expand and enhance tourism and economic development in the mountain region of the flight operations and infrastructure of the airport.

In February 2014, the government signed an agreement for the commercial use of the airfield. The Air Andorra wants to use the airport from the summer of 2014 for scheduled flights.