Middle Eastern airlines have parked nearly two dozen aircraft at Europe’s largest maintenance facility located in Spain to keep their planes away from the conflict, the facility’s director said Monday.
Qatar Airways, one of the airlines most affected by the war, confirmed it had temporarily parked some planes at Teruel airport in north eastern Spain.
Teruel airport, located in what’s known as ‘Empty Spain’, was used to park airplanes during the Covid pandemic and says it has become the largest facility in Europe for parking, maintaining and recycling aircraft.
It’s considered to be one of Spain’s ‘ghost’ airports (aeropuertos fantasma in Spanish), some of which welcome just a handful of passengers a year and which are intrinsically tied to the building bonanza and general overindulgence of pre-financial crash Spain.
READ ALSO: Why does Spain have so many ‘ghost’ airports that nobody uses?
Iran has launched missiles and drones at targets across the Gulf in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks, including at airports. This has severely impacted the aviation sector in the region.
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“Because of this turmoil, we’ve become a haven for aircraft from the Middle East,” Teruel airport’s director Alejandro Ibrahim said on Spanish radio station COPE
“The figure is already around 20 and a few more are expected,” he added.
Qatar Airways confirmed on Monday it had parked some of its aircraft outside of the Middle East.
“Due to the current exceptional circumstances in the region and the resulting disruption to flight operations beyond our control, Qatar Airways has positioned some of its aircraft at selected airports outside Qatar,” the airline said in a statement sent to AFP.
“This is a temporary measure, and the aircraft will be progressively returned to service as flight operations are restored to normal levels,” it added.
Aviation data firm Cirium said Qatar Airways, which specialises in long-haul flights from its base in Doha, is one of the airlines most affected by the war, having had to cancel nearly 92 percent of its flights since fighting began on February 28th.
With additional reporting by Alex Dunham, The Local Spain’s editor
