A refuge for aircraft: Why dozens of jets are suddenly landing at a quiet airport in Spain

Airlines facing disruptions from the escalating conflict in West Asia are once again turning to a remote airport in eastern Spain to park aircraft, reviving a pattern last seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Teruel airport, a state-owned facility in Spain’s Aragon region, is receiving an influx of planes as airspace closures and rerouted flights disrupt schedules, Reuters reported on Friday.

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Why Teruel is seeing activity again

The immediate trigger is operational disruption caused by war in West Asia. With multiple countries closing airspace and airlines forced to take longer routes, carriers are reassessing fleet deployment and temporarily grounding some aircraft.

“It’s not normal,” Alejandro Ibrahim, general manager of the terminal, said. “Companies are revising their fleets and routes and looking for safer places to park their planes, and Europe fits the bill.”

By the end of Saturday, the airport was expected to receive about 20 aircraft, including 17 from Qatar Airways, according to a schedule seen by Reuters. On Friday alone, around 10 wide-body jets were due to arrive.

What makes this airport suitable

Teruel is not a commercial passenger hub, which allows aircraft to remain parked without operational constraints. It also has scale – the airport can accommodate up to 250 wide-body and 400 narrow-body aircraft.

Its location plays a key role. The airport sits more than 1,000 metres above sea level and experiences over 250 days of sunshine each year. The dry, salt-free conditions reduce corrosion, making it suitable for storing aircraft over extended periods.

A role shaped during the pandemic

The airport’s use as a storage hub is not new. During the Covid-19 pandemic, when global travel collapsed, Teruel hosted around 140 aircraft over two years. “We’ve acted as a refuge and supported global air transport,” Ibrahim said, describing how the facility has been used during periods of disruption.

Why airlines can’t park aircraft just anywhere

Wide‑body aircraft cannot be preserved at just any airport because typical commercial hubs are operationally crowded and environmentally suboptimal for long‑term storage. Busy passenger airports already use nearly every gate and stand for revenue‑earning flights, leaving little space or spare capacity to park dozens of large jets for months without disrupting schedules and slot management.

In contrast, specialist storage sites such as Teruel are designed as low‑traffic “boneyard”‑style facilities with no regular passenger operations, allowing aircraft to sit idle on the tarmac without interfering with commercial traffic.

Moreover, many standard airports are located in humid, coastal, or high‑rainfall regions that accelerate corrosion and fuel‑tank contamination, which ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) and OEM‑linked guidance explicitly warn against for extended storage.

“Maintaining average cabin humidity below 70% relative humidity is recommended in order to minimize mold and corrosion issues,” ICAO says in its aircraft parking and storage advisory. “The presence of moisture can also cause corrosion to the fuel tank metal structure.”

Desirable storage sites sit in dry, inland climates with low humidity and minimal salt‑air exposure, which significantly reduces the risk of structural and systems corrosion and keeps return‑to‑service maintenance simpler and cheaper. Airlines therefore prefer a handful of dedicated wide‑body storage airports—such as Teruel.