Since 1948, more than 120 million passengers have passed through the infrastructure in the Txorierri Valley.
This Tuesday, Bilbao Airport celebrates the 75th anniversary since its inauguration. Since then, more than 120 million passengers have landed or taken off, according to AENA.
In September 1948, together with Sondika, it started operations in one of the few favorable countries at that time to develop an airport infrastructure in the Bilbao area. The first regular commercial flight was to Madrid, with Aviaco.
The first years of the infrastructure’s life saw constant growth, with the construction of a terminal, taxiways and the first buildings housing the basic facilities that any airport at the time had to have, as AENA recalls.
In 1952, the flight to Bordeaux laid the foundation stone of international flights, which were then understood as something ‘almost anecdotal and inaccessible’.
In 1964, the airport expanded its original runway, 10-28, to 2,000 meters, boosting an infrastructure that would appear “vital” for Bizkaia and Euskadi in the areas of services and tourism in the coming decades .
In 1967, Iberia began operating in Bilbao when the terminal registered 100,000 passengers per year, less than the number that now passes through the airport in a week.
The following decade, the 1970s, saw “significant investment” in the facilities, with the expansion of the terminal and passenger parking, and the current runway 12-30 constructed to facilitate operations with the larger reactors in operation been able to improve. From that moment on.
The 1982 World Cup in Spain, which Bilbao hosted, required an investment of 500 million pesetas to modernize the terminal building and propose new accesses to Sondika airport.
In the 1990s, Lufthansa arrived to connect with Frankfurt, completing the most important connecting airports until then: Madrid and London.
As the turn of the century approached, the liberalization of air transport with the emergence of new airlines and the rise of the low-cost model in Europe brought with it the need for 21st century infrastructure, they recalled.
The current control tower was put into use in 1999. The following year, a new terminal and a new airport were opened in Loiu, with new and more comfortable accesses, much more capacity and better services for passengers and airlines.
Consolidated as a gateway to the Cantabrian coast, Bilbao Airport has passed more than 100 million passengers throughout its history in 2018. Once the pandemic is over, one of the most difficult moments in history due to the abrupt cessation of activities, the infrastructure will be prepared for new challenges, as reported by AENA.
With growing international traffic, more than 60 routes and approximately 6 million passengers per year, it inaugurated last year a new office building that will allow it to continue to grow and “provide a quality service so that the success story of Bilbao Airport will continue” . will continue its course in the coming decades,” they concluded.
Source: EITB
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