Costly Spanish ‘Ghost Airport’ Gets 1 Meager Bid at Auction
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MADRID — One of Spain’s “ghost airports” — expensive projects that were virtually unused — received just one bid in a bankruptcy auction after costing some 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to build. The buyer’s offer: 10,000 euros.

Ciudad Real’s Central airport, about 235 kilometers (150 miles) south of Madrid, became a symbol of the country’s wasteful spending during a construction boom that ended with the financial crisis of 2008, the year the airport opened. The operator of the airport went bankrupt in 2012 after it failed to draw enough traffic.

Chinese group Tzaneen International tabled the single bid in Friday’s auction, Spanish news agency Europa Press said. The receiver had set a minimum price of 28 million euros. If no better bid is received by September, the sale will go through, the news agency said.

Tzaneen International reportedly plans to invest up to 100 million euros in the airport and make it a cargo hub. The offer is for the airport infrastructure only, not adjacent land.

Central has one of Europe’s longest runways and was designed to handle 2.5 million passengers a year.

The construction was heavily funded by the Caja Castilla La Mancha savings bank — the first of Spain’s troubled savings banks to be bailed out, in 2010.

Another largely unused airport and symbol of wasteful spending is Castellon, on Spain’s eastern coast. It cost around 150 million euros and opened in 2011.

趁火打劫/西國340億元機場 中英34萬競標

中國大陸等亞洲國家與英國合資的「Tzaneen國際公司」十七日開價一萬歐元（約台幣卅四萬元），競標耗資十億歐元（約台幣三百四十二億元）打造的西班牙雷阿爾城（或稱皇城）中央機場。該公司表示最多將投資一億歐元（約台幣卅四億元），將這座「幽靈機場」改造成中國大陸進口商品的轉運樞紐。

雷阿爾城位於西班牙首都馬德里南方一百六十公里處，人口僅七萬五千人。許多西班牙人謔稱「很難在地圖上找到雷阿爾城」，並稱雷阿爾城中央機場為「唐吉訶德機場」，意味機場不該存在。民營的雷阿爾城中央機場2008年底落成，設有一條能停靠目前最大客機空巴Ａ-380的跑道。該機場原本希望吸引廉價航空停靠，並達到每年一千萬旅客人次。但馬德里巴拉克斯機場擴建後，雷阿爾城中央機場2010年旅客人次僅三萬三千，負債3億歐元（約台幣102億元），翌年破產關閉。

雷阿爾城中央機場去年以1億歐元（約台幣34億元）標售流標，今年一再降價求售。當地法院希望機場能賣到4000萬歐元（約台幣14億元），Tzaneen國際公司目前是唯一投標者，但開價距離期望售價的七成太遠，法院因而決定延長拍賣廿天，希望其他買家出價競標，並訂九月中旬做成最後決定。

西班牙幽靈機場不只一座，雷阿爾城機場成為西班牙財政困境的縮影。好消息是，另一座位於卡斯特利昂的幽靈機場在愛爾蘭廉航「瑞恩航空」決定停靠後，將於九月恢復營運。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/07/18/world/europe/ap-eu-spain-ghost-airport.html

2015-07-24．聯合報．A17．國際．編譯陳韻涵