Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Vitoria Airport, also known locally as Foronda Airport, serves the Basque city of Vitoria-Gasteiz from a site some eight kilometres north-west of the city near the hamlet of Foronda. It is one of Spain's principal cargo airports, hosting a major DHL hub, alongside a modest but growing scheduled passenger service, and its long concrete runway with an ILS makes it a straightforward and interesting VFR or IFR destination for simulator pilots.
Vitoria Airport lies close to Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Basque Country of Spain and is operated by Aena. It is known locally as Foronda Airport after the nearby hamlet, and although passenger numbers have fluctuated considerably over the decades, the field is notable for being one of Spain's busiest cargo airports, with DHL running a major logistics operation there. For a simulator pilot it offers a long, well-equipped single runway with ILS approach capability, set in a rural landscape a short distance from a historic Basque city.
The airport sits near the hamlet of Foronda, about eight kilometres from the centre of Vitoria-Gasteiz. It is located within the Basque Country, closer to Vitoria-Gasteiz than to Bilbao, though Bilbao Airport lies within the wider region and has historically drawn traffic away from Vitoria owing to its more central position relative to the main population centres of the area.
Vitoria has a single physical runway, 04/22, some 11,493 feet (3,500 metres) long with a hard surface, making it one of the longest civil runways in Spain. It is lit for night operations and equipped with an ILS on runway 04, supporting Category II/III precision approaches.
Ground movements are handled on 121.8 MHz and the tower frequency is 118.45 MHz. The airport is equipped with an ILS serving runway 04, allowing instrument approaches in poor weather.
The airport is readily identified by its long, dead-straight runway and the proximity of the hamlet of Foronda, from which the field takes its popular name; the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz lies a short distance to the south-east.
Before the present airport existed, Vitoria-Gasteiz was served by an airfield at Salburua. Growing demand in the early 1970s led the local chamber of commerce to press for a new airport, and preliminary studies began in 1972. The original 1976 plan envisaged a runway of 2,200 metres, but the runway actually built extended to 3,500 metres. Construction began in 1977 and required the demolition of the hamlet of Otaza, which stood too close to the intended runway threshold. The airport opened on 16 February 1980, funded by the provincial government of Alava, which had hoped it would become the principal gateway to the Basque Country; this ambition was undermined by the proximity of Bilbao Airport to the region's main population centres. DHL established a logistics centre at the airport in 1995, and a new cargo terminal was inaugurated in 2006. Passenger services have varied greatly over the years: Ryanair operated from 2006 to 2007, Air Nostrum ended its Madrid service in 2011, and for several years the airport had no scheduled flights at all, relying on seasonal charters. Ryanair returned in 2017 with services to Bergamo and Tenerife, later adding Cologne/Bonn, Seville, Mallorca, Alicante and Charleroi at various points. Binter Canarias began flights to the Canary Islands in 2020, and Volotea announced services to Madrid and Barcelona from late 2025. Vitoria has grown into one of Spain's leading cargo airports, ranking fourth in the country for cargo traffic in 2023.
Vitoria functions today as a mixed cargo and passenger airport under Aena management, with DHL Aviation operating a substantial freight hub serving destinations including Brussels, Leipzig/Halle, Lisbon and Milan-Malpensa; DHL has announced plans for a new aircraft maintenance hangar due to become operational by around 2027. On the passenger side, Ryanair offers year-round and seasonal routes to destinations such as Bergamo, Alicante, Charleroi, Seville, Palma de Mallorca and Malaga, Volotea has announced services to Madrid and Barcelona, and Binter Canarias operates a seasonal link to Gran Canaria. The airport has a single terminal with three gates and sixteen aircraft stands for medium and light aircraft.