Socialism Fails Again: Spain's Ghost Airports

by John Galt
January 15, 2012 16:15 ET

The gloating of the American citizen who reads this story will be quite short lived once the average soul takes a moment to reflect on all of the idiotic projects and empty airports built by the likes of Pelosi, Boehner, Reid, or other Senator or Representative. The problem is, like the European Union, most Americans fail to understand that the problems illustrated by the following absurd story via the Turkish newspaper the Hurriyet Daily News and AFP, that the abuses by our politicians are as inane and stupid as the mistakes duplicated throughout the European Union.

(click on the title to read the story in full)

Ghost airports burning cash

Katell Abiven – MADRID / Agence France-Presse
Spain's regions built an abundance of airports during the boom times a few years ago. Now, there are more than 15 ‘ghost airports' which host one flight per day at best. Dozens of people still work at these airports

Built during the economic boom and now deserted, Spain's growing ranks of “ghost airports” may not be the international air hubs their creators dreamed of – but they are still burning up cash.

When Badajoz airport, near the Portuguese border in western Spain, saw its last commercial flight take off at 8:05 a.m. on Jan. 10, it became just the latest of many eerie signs of the country's sharp reversal of fortune.

Among them is the private airport in the eastern city of Castellon, still deserted after opening in March last year. Critics complain it pays for staff and even pest control – all it lacks are flights and passengers.
“At the time the airport was a reasonable idea because it was linked to a broader tourism promotion project,” said Eva Martinez, a member of the regional parliament from the opposition Socialist Party. But the airport turned out to be too much. “The nearest airport, in Valencia, is barely 50 kilometers away,” Martinez said.

Now Castellon and the highly indebted Valencia region, which has begun raising taxes and cutting spending on services such as healthcare, is haunted by the costs of the ghost site.
“It wouldn't have mattered if the airport had stayed as just an idea,” said Martinez. “The problem is that it is built now.”

The ghost airport runs a 7.2 million-euro budget, including 424,000 euros to pay seven staff and 90,000 euros a year for falcons and ferrets, used by airports to keep birds and rabbits away from the planes and runways. On top of all this is 30 million euros spent on advertising.

Think this is not happening in the U.S.A.? Think again….