La Seu d’Urgell airport has just completed nine years as a commercial aerodrome, launching a new route to Palma that has not been without criticism. Mayor Vielha and vice president of the Lleida Tourism Board, Juan Antonio Serrano, questioned the Government’s financing of an infrastructure “that serves mainly to bring clients to Andorra.”
The truth is that the Government of Andorra plans to contribute 400,000 euros this year to an infrastructure “whose current deficit is around one million euros; We contribute around 40%,” says the Secretary of State for Energy Transition, Transport and Mobility of the Government of Andorra, David Forné. Aeroports de Catalunya has not provided the data, but does not question the maintenance of co-management of the infrastructure.
In addition to paying for part of the operating deficit, the Government of Andorra finances the Madrid-La Seu route all year round and the recently launched route to Palma operated by Air Nostrum. “We are talking about between 600,000 and 700,000 euros for the Madrid route and a maximum of 200,000 for the Palma route,” says Forné. The Government of Andorra and Aeroports de Catalunya decline to value the criticism of the mayor of Vielha and part of the Aranese tourism sector. David Forné aligns himself with Josefina Lladós, president of the Alt Urgell Regional Council, and the mayor of La Seu d’Urgell, Joan Barrera. Both maintain that the airport is more than just the flights to Palma and Madrid and that one in three workers at La Seu d’Urgell has their job in Andorra.
The Government of Andorra has collaborated in the marking and lighting of the runway, investments that according to Forné have generated private investments. The most important, that of Andorra Aviation Group. In January, Catalonia Airports authorized this company to put into operation an FBO (fixed based operator) that allows passengers to enter directly into the hangar to complete check-in and security checks. This is the second FBO that exists in Catalonia (the first is at the BCN-Josep Tarradellas El Prat airport). “The FBO is intended for luxury corporate clients, such as managers, athletes or artists who want to travel for professional or private reasons from Andorra and the La Seu d’Urgell region to other destinations within Europe,” explains Chris Bouwer, partner and manager of Andorra Aviation Group.
In 2023, the number of passengers at La Seu d’Urgell airport decreased compared to 2022, the year in which flights to Madrid began. According to Aeroports de Catalunya, in 2023 there were 9,380 and in 2022 they reached 11,238. A year earlier, in 2021, 5,145 passengers were registered. Commercial flights last year were 170; corporate flights and air taxis, 1,532, and aerial work, rescue or rescue flights, 2,951.
Night operations were approved in mid-June and there have been four operations carried out at night with corporate aviation. The AirNostrum company is negotiating with the State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) to be able to carry out night operations, but at the moment it does not have the certificate.
The airport generates 112 direct jobs. For Aeroports de Catalunya “it is a pole of attraction for new companies in the sector in the territory” and there are currently ten companies located there. From the Catalan public company they affirm that this airport “generates and attracts European projects that can be implemented in the territory and improves connectivity in the Pyrenees, in addition to expanding the options for tourism and improving the provision of public air services.”