Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport is the principal international gateway to Galicia, sited in the parish of Lavacolla some 12 km east of Santiago de Compostela. Operated by Aena and equipped with a single long, ILS-served runway, it handles substantial scheduled and charter traffic and lies close to the historic Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, making the approach over Galicia's green, hilly terrain a notable feature for visiting pilots.
Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport, previously known as Lavacolla Airport, is the busiest airport in Galicia and the second-busiest in northern Spain after Bilbao. It is operated by Aena and serves as a focus city for Vueling in the north-west Iberian Peninsula, with Ryanair, Iberia, easyJet and other carriers also operating scheduled services. For a visiting simulator pilot the field offers a substantial ILS-equipped runway set among the hills of inland Galicia, close to the terminus of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, giving the approach a distinctive character.
The airport sits in the parish of Lavacolla, about 12 km east of the city of Santiago de Compostela, within the municipalities of Santiago de Compostela, O Pino and Boqueixón, in the province of A Coruña. It is a controlled aerodrome with its own control tower and provides approach, tower and ground services to arriving and departing traffic.
The airfield has a single physical runway, 17/35, surfaced in hard-standing asphalt and equipped with runway lighting. Published lengths are 10,110 ft for runway 17 and 10,015 ft for runway 35, with an ILS available for instrument approaches. Field elevation is 1,184 ft.
Radio services comprise Approach on 118.2 MHz, Ground on 121.7 MHz and Tower on 118.75 MHz. The runway is equipped with an ILS, supporting instrument approaches in Galicia's frequently cloudy and misty weather.
The Christian pilgrimage route of the Camino de Santiago passes close to the airport and can serve as a useful ground reference when approaching from the west toward Santiago de Compostela.
The airport originated with a group of aviation enthusiasts who organised its establishment in October 1932, with directors chosen soon after to select a site. Construction began in 1935, and the first scheduled flight from Santiago de Compostela took place on 27 September 1937. After the Spanish Civil War, political prisoners held in the Lavacolla concentration camp were forced to work on the airport's construction. A new terminal was built in 1969 and later remodelled, including in 1993. In June 1980 Iberia launched the airport's first transatlantic route, a seasonal Boeing 747 service to New York, followed shortly after by Viasa's non-stop DC-10 service to Caracas; a cargo terminal was added in 1981. A new passenger terminal opened on 13 October 2011, and the airport was renamed Santiago–Rosalía de Castro on 12 March 2020 in honour of the Galician romanticist writer and poet.
The airport is operated by Aena and today handles scheduled and charter services from carriers including Iberia, Vueling, Ryanair, easyJet, Aer Lingus, Lufthansa and others, with Vueling using it as a focus city for the north-west Iberian Peninsula. It has a single passenger terminal that opened in 2011, built to handle rising traffic through the region, and the field also retains capacity for cargo operations.