Santiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport will suspend all operations from April 23 to May 27, 2026, for essential runway pavement renewal works. The €26.61 million project, awarded to Padecasa Obras y Servicios, Infraestructuras Conelsan, and Francisco Gómez y Cía, spans 15 months and targets 19,000 square meters with excavations up to one meter deep, using 73,000 tons of asphalt to extend runway life and enhance future operability.
Prior works begin January 13, 2026, in nightly slots from 23:30 to 05:30 until April 22, avoiding daytime commercial traffic disruptions. The full closure enables deeper refurbishments, including balizamiento renewal, drainage upgrades, critical area leveling, and LED lighting installation with 888 new beacons and over 100 km of cabling for energy efficiency.
Instrument landing systems (ILS) will upgrade to Category II/III at runway end 17 during the closure and Category I at end 35 in August-September. Aerolíneas like Vueling will shift Santiago routes to A Coruña-Alvedro, boosting Barcelona flights to five daily and adding London-Heathrow, Paris-Orly, Málaga, Gran Canaria, Palma, Sevilla, and Tenerife services there; Iberia expands to Madrid-Barajas, while easyJet cancels Basel and Geneva links.
This impacts Galicia’s primary gateway, handling most regional air traffic, forcing travelers to alternatives amid peak spring demand and prompting fare hikes noted as the ‘€700 effect.’