Where is the Asturian Airport?

Why are we here? Is it to see the iglesia parroquial de Santiago del Monte? Well yes, in part. Mostly we are here to be near my favourite airport - Asturias. To be honest Santiago will intrigue - it has tiny lanes with barns sticking out into them, and the church is nice - Francisco says ‘Good place to sit and rest and contemplate all the beauty of the surroundings. On the Camino de Santiago, this well-kept and clean site, surrounded by gardens, is an ideal place to sit and reflect on our journey.’  However, it won’t take long.



I do not fly nearly enough not to still be excited by it.  Some airports are grand, some are comfy.  Asturias airport is the later.  Why do I love so much.  For these reasons.


1] The car park is outside the terminal. It takes minutes to get to your car.


2] To land the plane has to do a sharp turn and come parallel to the coast and swoop over the River Nalon to land.


3] It has a gift shop that sells high quality Asturian kitsch.


4] It has the sort of restaurant that has table clothes and Menu del Dia. Of this, more later.


The airport opened in 1968. The first plane to land was a Fokker F27, flying the Iberia route from Madrid.  In 1980 it was expanded ahead of the 1982 World Cup. Expansions and developments continued into the 2000s.  Last year the port hit a new high for passenger numbers [1974850] and operations [15289] but freight is much reduced, to 11494kg, much down on its 2001 peak. August is the busiest month and February the quietest.  Madrid is the most popular link city, Barcelona the 2nd and London the 10th.


Under the Controversy section wiki notes ‘There are different disagreements about its geographical location. It is geographically located in Anzu, parish of Santiago del Monte belonging to the municipality of Castrillón and not in Ranón (parish of Soto del Barco ). Despite this, it is still popularly known as Ranón Airport ‘


Now is time for a confession.  I am a bad parent.  The first time we went through we noted the restaurant.  The second time we knew we had time till the bus to Gijon left.  We had a decent lunch.  The young son and heir went to the loo.  It was in view of where we were seated in an empty restaurant.   We sat. We enjoyed the moment. We enjoyed other moments.  After a while we noticed we were still son less.  A distraught infant was still in the loo.  The very heavy door would not open to his youthful pushing. I think the therapy has worked and he is over the incident.









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