A week or so ago Santiago de Compostela’s huge new airport terminal was finally opened to the public. It looks quite impressive from the pictures, and would not be out of place in London, Chicago or Frankfurt (some of the world’s busiest airports). Indeed, here in Galicia it has been dubbed the new Terminal 4, which is a reference to the enormous new terminal building opened in Madrid only a year or two ago.

I guess the reason that people have made this comparison, is simply because of it’s size….. it’s pretty huge for the current number of flights that it handles. The report says that the new site is handling roughly about 50 flights a day, although I must admit that I have never seen more than a handful of flights on the arrival and departure boards when ever I have visited.

To explain the full story I should also tell you that there is fierce competition between Galicia’s three local airports – not only has Santiago invested in this huge new terminal building, but Vigo and La Coruña have also spent millions on huge new multi-story car parks, where again, never more than one floor is ever actually occupied! It’s all an ego trip, precipitated by the local mayors in an attempt to prove who has the biggest….. well, airport!

There can be no doubt that the best solution for Galicia itself is really quite simple – to consolidate our efforts (not to mention our hard-earned Euros), into one large provincial airport would serve the whole region.

A week or so ago Santiago de Compostela’s huge new airport terminal was finally opened to the public. It looks quite impressive from the pictures, and would not be out of place in London, Chicago or Frankfurt (some of the world’s busiest airports). Indeed, here in Galicia it has been dubbed the new Terminal 4, which is a reference to the enormous new terminal building opened in Madrid only a year or two ago.

I guess the reason that people have made this comparison, is simply because of it’s size….. it’s pretty huge for the current number of flights that it handles. The report says that the new site is handling roughly about 50 flights a day, although I must admit that I have never seen more than a handful of flights on the arrival and departure boards when ever I have visited.

To explain the full story I should also tell you that there is fierce competition between Galicia’s three local airports – not only has Santiago invested in this huge new terminal building, but Vigo and La Coruña have also spent millions on huge new multi-story car parks, where again, never more than one floor is ever actually occupied! It’s all an ego trip, precipitated by the local mayors in an attempt to prove who has the biggest….. well, airport!

There can be no doubt that the best solution for Galicia itself is really quite simple – to consolidate our efforts (not to mention our hard-earned Euros), into one large provincial airport would serve the whole region.