Reus Airport (IATA: REU, ICAO: LERS) (commonly known as Barcelona Reus or Barcelona South) is located by the beaches of Costa Daurada, equidistant in relation to the town of Constantí and the city of Reus and approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) from the city centre of Tarragona, in Catalonia, Spain. The airport receives a large amount of tourist traffic from passengers destined for the beach resorts of Salou and Cambrils as well as for the centre of Barcelona, which is approximately 88 km (55 mi) to the northeast. It is also close to one of Europe's largest theme resorts, PortAventura World, and the Mountains of Prades, a Mediterranean forest in the comarca of Baix Camp.

Reus Airport

Aeroport de Reus
Summary
Airport typePublic
Owner/OperatorAena
ServesReus, Barcelona, Tarragona, Costa Dorada
Elevation AMSL71 m / 233 ft
Coordinates41°08′51″N 001°10′02″E / 41.14750°N 1.16722°E / 41.14750; 1.16722
Websitewww.aena.es
Map
REU is located in Catalonia
REU
REU
Location of airport in Catalonia
Map
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
07/25 2,459 8,068 Asphalt
Statistics (2023)
Passengers1,045,419
Passenger change 22-23Increase14.7%
Aircraft movements20,512
Source: AENA[1][2][3]

History

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Early years

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The airport was founded in 1935 by the Aeroclub de Reus. It served as a Republican base during the Spanish Civil War and after the Nationalist victory served as a Spanish Air Force base. The base was demilitarised in the late 1990s and became a fully civilian airport administered by AENA, the Spanish airports authority.[citation needed]

Development since the 2000s

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The airport has been a Ryanair base since October 2008 although for the winter 2009–2010 season Ryanair reduced the number of flights and destinations from Reus by a substantial amount. This reduction was only temporary for the winter months, and a full flight programme recommenced late March 2010.[citation needed]

On 29 June 2011 Ryanair announced that their base would close on 30 October with the loss of 28 routes after failing to reach an agreement with the local government. Ryanair resumed some flights in March 2012, but they are operated by aircraft not based at Reus.[4]

Terminal

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Aerial view
 
Terminal interior

In order to adapt Reus Airport to future air traffic demand, Aena Aeropuertos has carried out a series of improvements and extended its facilities. These include a new check-in building between the arrivals and departures buildings, integrating the three buildings into one. The departures building has also been remodelled for use as a boarding area. The departures terminal had 23 check-in desks and 12 boarding gates spread over two rooms but in 2023, 3 gates were removed due to the small size of the terminal and inefficiency of showing passports at the gates. There are currently 9 gates: gates 1 to 3 are intended for Schengen flights, and 4 to 9 are dedicated to non-Schengen destinations - although occasionally the two rooms are made into one with Schengen flights departing from other gates. Before entering the departure lounge for gates 4 to 9, passengers have to go through passport control unlike gates 1 to 3. The public area and the passenger only zone have cafeteria and restaurant services and duty-free shops for both gates 1 to 3 and 4 to 9. For the lounge with gates 4 to 9 the duty free shop has been significantly upgraded in 2024, it now has two entrances.[citation needed]

Airlines and destinations

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The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Reus:[5]

AirlinesDestinations
Air Nostrum Seasonal charter: Porto[6]
easyJet Seasonal: Belfast–International (begins 5 June 2025),[7] Glasgow (begins 2 June 2025),[8] London–Luton,[9] London–Southend (begins 1 April 2025),[10] Manchester[11]
Iberia Seasonal: Palma de Mallorca[12]
Jet2.com Seasonal: Belfast–International, Birmingham,[13] Bournemouth (begins 28 July 2026),[citation needed] Bristol,[14] East Midlands, Edinburgh,[15] Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool (begins 4 May 2025),[16] London–Luton (begins 5 May 2025),[17] London–Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
Ryanair Seasonal: Birmingham, Charleroi, Cork, Dublin, East Midlands, Eindhoven, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, London–Stansted, Manchester, Shannon, Weeze[18]
Smartwings Seasonal charter: Prague
TUI Airways[19] Seasonal: Aberdeen, Belfast–International, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Cork,[20] Dublin,[20] Glasgow, London–Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Shannon[20]
TUI fly Belgium Seasonal: Brussels
Vueling Seasonal: Paris–Orly[21]

Statistics

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Busiest routes

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Busiest routes from REU (2023)
Rank Destination Passengers Change 2021 / 22
1   Dublin 175,577   11%
2   Manchester 109,372   9%
3   London-Stansted 94,686   59%
4   Birmingham 67,875   9%
5   Cork 61,129   28%
6   Eindhoven 50,712   7%
7   Glasgow 50,555   5%
8   Shannon 44,227   60%
9   Newcastle 43,308   1%
10   Charleroi 42,579   40%
11   Belfast-International 40,537   0%
12   East Midlands 39,877   17%
13   Leeds/Bradford 38,853   20%
14   Bristol 33,890   19%
15   Liverpool 30,791   63%
16   London-Gatwick 24,367   10%
17   Weeze 21,204   New route
18   Paris-Orly 19,684   New route
19   Edinburgh 14,553   19%
20   Brussels 10,738   1%
Source: Estadísticas de tráfico aereo[22]

Development

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In 1995, approximately 500,000 passengers passed through the airport. In 2004 this number more than doubled to 1.1 million and in 2009 the airport reached a peak of 1.7 million. By 2014 this had dropped (-12.4%) to 850,492 passengers.[23] In 2015 the drop continued to 705,067 passengers (-17,1%).[1] After that the number of passengers has increased a lot to 817,765 passengers in 2016 (+16,0%). In 2017 the airport passed after 6 years again the mark of 1 million passengers. In 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, passenger numbers dropped significantly but started to recover in 2022 although 1m passengers was not hit.[citation needed] In 2023 over 1m passengers passed through the terminal once again and is most likely going to increase for 2024 and 2025. This is due to more airlines and routes taking place, for example, easyJet have relaunched flights from Manchester airport and London’s Luton airport for the 2024 summer season and for the 2025 summer season, London’s Southend airport.[citation needed]

Incidents and accidents

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  • On 20 July 1970, a Condor Boeing 737-100 (registered D-ABEL) which was approaching Reus Airport, collided with a privately owned Piper Cherokee light aircraft (registration EC-BRU) near Tarragona, Spain. The Piper subsequently crashed, resulting in the death of the three persons on board. The Condor Boeing suffered only minor damage, and there were no injuries amongst the 95 passengers and 5 crew members.[24]
  • In 1996, two powerful bombs placed by the Basque group Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA) in the airport left more than 30 people injured. That same day two other bombs exploded in two hotels located near the airport.[25]
  • In 2004 a Swearingen Metro aircraft was to be repositioned to Barcelona Airport for maintenance work, but during takeoff, while accelerating 80 knots, the nose gear collapsed. The aircraft sustained serious damage to the fuselage, engines and the propellers.[26]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Informes Anuales (provisional) - 2015" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05.
  2. ^ "Reus Airport 2015" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-16.
  3. ^ "Presentación - Aeropuerto de Reus". Aena.es (in Spanish). 9 October 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  4. ^ Pérez, Gorka; Pérez, Mercè (29 June 2011). "Ryanair abandonará Reus". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  5. ^ "Airlines - Reus Airport". Aena.es. 9 October 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  6. ^ "AIR NOSTRUM NS23 PORTUGAL SCHEDULED CHARTER SERVICE ADDITIONS".
  7. ^ "easyJet NS25 Network Additions – 19NOV24". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  8. ^ "easyJet's two brand new routes from Glasgow Airport".
  9. ^ "La companyia EasyJet tornarà a operar des de l'Aeroport de Reus amb vols a Manchester i Londres Luton a partir de l'abril | Actualitat | Diputació de Tarragona".
  10. ^ "Southend Airport easyJet new Mediterranean routes announced". 22 August 2024.
  11. ^ "La companyia EasyJet tornarà a operar des de l'Aeroport de Reus amb vols a Manchester i Londres Luton a partir de l'abril | Actualitat | Diputació de Tarragona".
  12. ^ "Air Nostrum connectarà Reus amb Palma de Mallorca durant els mesos d'estiu". Diari Més. 2 February 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  13. ^ "Jet2 NS25 A321neo Network Expansion – 14JUL24".
  14. ^ "Jet2's Bristol Airport base will bring 450,000-holiday seats". ukaviation.news. 11 November 2020.
  15. ^ "Jet2 NS25 A321neo Network Expansion – 14JUL24".
  16. ^ "Jet2 puts 16m seats on sale for summer 2025".
  17. ^ "Jet2 Expands Luton Airport Routes with Direct Flights to Girona, Verona, and Madeira, Enhancing European Travel Access".
  18. ^ "Ryanair NS23 Network Additions Summary – 26MAR23". Aeroroutes.
  19. ^ "Flight Timetable". tui.co.uk.
  20. ^ a b c "Flight Timetable". TUI Airways. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  21. ^ "Vueling Adds Paris Orly – Reus Service in NS23".
  22. ^ "Inicio". www.aena.es. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  23. ^ Informes Anuales - 2014 - AENA
  24. ^ "ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-130 D-ABEL Reus, Spain Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved: October 26, 2023
  25. ^ "Suscripción digital online". El Mundo en Orbyt (in Spanish). 21 July 1996. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  26. ^ Ranter, Harro (5 November 2013). "Reus Airport profile". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
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