Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport
Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport , previously named Lavacolla Airport and also known as Santiago de Compostela Airport, is an international airport serving the autonomous community and historic nationality of Galicia in Spain. It is the biggest and busiest airport in Galicia and the 2nd busiest airport in northern Spain after Bilbao Airport. It has been named after the Galician romanticist writer and poet Rosalía de Castro, since 12 March 2020.
The airport is located in the parish of Lavacolla, 12 km from Santiago de Compostela and handled 3,640,664 passengers in 2024. It is the focus city of Vueling in the northwest Iberian Peninsula. The Christian pilgrimage route of the Camino de Santiago runs near the airport.
History
The airport was set up by a group of aviation enthusiasts in October 1932 and two months directors were chosen to select where the airport was going to be built. In 1935 construction work started at the airport where two years later on 27 September 1937 the first scheduled flight from Santiago de Compostela took place. After the Spanish Civil war, political prisoners were forced to work in the construction of the airport.In 1969 a new terminal was built at the airport. It later underwent several expansions, including a remodeling in 1993.
In June 1980, Iberia launched a seasonal flight to New York City on a Boeing 747. This was Santiago de Compostela's first transatlantic route. Four months later, Viasa added non-stop service to Caracas using McDonnell Douglas DC-10s. In 1981, a cargo terminal was built, giving the airport capacity to handle cargo flights. Viasa shut down in 1997, but Avensa resurrected the route to Caracas in March 1999. United will resume intercontinental flights to the Americas with a new route to Newark starting in May 2026.
On 13 October 2011, a new passenger terminal opened at the airport.
Terminal
The airport currently has one operating terminal. The old terminal at Santiago de Compostela airport opened in 1969 and was often expanded. The old terminal closed on the night of 13 October 2011 when operations transferred to the new terminal.The new terminal at Santiago de Compostela Airport officially opened on 13 October 2011 and passenger operations transferred there the following day. It is adjacent to the old terminal and has a size of 74,000 sq m. It has 22 check-in desks, three security checkpoints, four baggage carousels, and 13 gates of which 5 have airbridges. The baggage hall is split into two zones, one for Schengen flights and one for non-Schengen. It can handle as many as 4 million passengers per year. The terminal is due to be expanded in the future. This includes adding another five airbridges to five of the current gates as well as three more baggage carousels and an expanded shopping area.
Airlines and destinations
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport:Statistics
During the early 2000s, numbers increased significantly at the airport, from 1.24 million in 2002 to peak at 2.46 million in 2011. Because of the financial crisis in Spain, those numbers decreased to 2.1 million in 2014, with cargo decreasing significantly during that period. The Spanish economic recovery in the mid-2010s and the rise of Santiago de Compostela as an international destination are again increasing cargo and passenger numbers, breaking the 3 million passenger mark for the first time in 2022.Traffic figures by year
| Passengers handled | Passengers % change | Aircraft movements | Aircraft % change | Freight | Freight % change | |
| 2000 | 1,332,893 | - | 19,660 | - | 6,773 | - |
| 2001 | 1,281,334 | 3.86% | 19,084 | 2.92% | 6,228 | 8.04% |
| 2002 | 1,240,730 | 3.16% | 17.362 | 9.02% | 5,716 | 8.22% |
| 2003 | 1,381,826 | 11.37% | 18,454 | 6.28% | 5,318 | 6.96% |
| 2004 | 1,580,675 | 14.39% | 21,593 | 17.00% | 4,938 | 7.14% |
| 2005 | 1,843,118 | 16.60% | 25,693 | 18.98% | 3,805 | 22.94% |
| 2006 | 1,994,519 | 8.21% | 24,719 | 3.79% | 2,587 | 32.01% |
| 2007 | 2,050,172 | 2.79% | 24,643 | 0.30% | 2,749 | 6.26% |
| 2008 | 1,917,466 | 6.47% | 21,945 | 10.94% | 2,418 | 12.04% |
| 2009 | 1,944,068 | 1.38% | 20,166 | 8.10% | 1,988 | 17.78% |
| 2010 | 2,172,869 | 11.76% | 21,252 | 5.38% | 1,964 | 1.20% |
| 2011 | 2,464,330 | 13.41% | 22,322 | 5.03% | 1,787 | 9.01% |
| 2012 | 2,194,611 | 10.94% | 19,511 | 12.59% | 1,815 | 1.56% |
| 2013 | 2,073,055 | 5.53% | 18,688 | 4.21% | 1,929 | 6.28% |
| 2014 | 2,083,873 | 0.52% | 19,431 | 3.97% | 2,095 | 8.60% |
| 2015 | 2,296,248 | 10.20% | 20,540 | 5.70% | 2,311 | 10.10% |
| 2016 | 2,510,740 | 9.30% | 21,227 | 3.60% | 2,936 | 27.04% |
| 2017 | 2,644,925 | 5.34% | 21,520 | 1.38% | 2,693 | 8.28% |
| 2018 | 2,724,750 | 3.01% | 21,839 | 1.50% | 3,019 | 12.10% |
| 2019 | 2,903,427 | 6.56% | 22,396 | 2.55% | 3,201 | 6.02% |
| 2020 | 935,394 | 67.8% | 10,949 | 51.1% | 2,981 | 6.9% |
| 2021 | 1,653,821 | 76.8% | 15,375 | 40.4% | 4,938 | 65.6% |
| 2022 | 3,236,619 | 95.7% | 25,458 | 65.6% | 4,853 | 1.7% |
| 2023 | 3,537,445 | 9.2% | 25,903 | 1.7% | 4,818 | 0.7% |
| 2024 | 3,640,664 | 2.9% | 26,968 | 4.1% | 4,941 | 2.6% |
| 2025 | 3,120,759 | 14.3% | 24,837 | 7.9% | 3,733 | 25.6% |
Traffic figures by month
| 2024 passengers | 2025 passengers | Passengers % change | |
| January | 199,165 | 187,988 | 5.6 |
| February | 202,439 | 185,997 | 8.1 |
| March | 258,809 | 244.637 | 5.5 |
| April | 342,004 | 284,639 | 16.8 |
| May | 404,301 | 302,990 | 25.1 |
| June | 346,200 | 310,351 | 10.4 |
| July | 388,610 | 340,346 | 12.4 |
| August | 384,610 | 346,012 | 10.0 |
| September | 327,246 | 303,244 | 7.3 |
| October | 305,244 | 276,814 | 9.3 |
| November | 235,917 | 157,855 | 33.1 |
| December | 246,119 | 179,886 | 26.9 |
Busiest routes
Ground transportation
Road
The airport is linked with Santiago de Compostela by the Autovía A-54. This motorway, although some sections are yet to be built and opened, also connects the airport with Lugo, where it connects with the Autovía A-6, providing toll-free motorway access to the rest of Spain; and to the French border through the Autovía A-8 that intersects with the Autovía A-6 near Lugo. Nearby Autopista AP-9 connects the airport directly to A Coruña, Ferrol, Pontevedra, Vigo and the Portuguese border. Ourense is reachable through the Autopista AP-53 that connects with the Autopista AP-9.There are several major car rental companies at the airport. The airport has more than 5,000 short and long-term covered parking spaces in the new terminal building. In addition, there are several low-cost, long-term private parking facilities around the airport.