León Airport

León Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto de León), (Aeropuertu de Llión, in Leonese language) (IATA: LEN, ICAO: LELN) is an international airport located 6 kilometres (4 mi) from Léon, Spain. In 2007, the airport handled 161,705 passengers, 7,328 operations and 300 kilograms of cargo.

In the 1940s an aviation school was installed in the facilities, where the first pilots graduated at the General Aviation School. When this was closed it was replaced by the Apprentices School and later by the Airforce Specialists School.

In 1964 Leon Airport was opened to commercial traffic. It now had an airfield with facilities for landing in two directions. The aeronautical limitations were published in 1967 and remained unmodified until 1988. In 1990, the local and regional governments decided to sponsor an airport infrastructure project that would encourage aeronautical activity in the province. For this purpose, Leon's Provincial Council requested authorisation from the Spanish Ministry of Defence to install civil facilities on the land of the military air station, with permission being granted in 1991.

In 1994 the first stage of Leon's civil airport project was drawn up and a runway, a link road and an aircraft parking area were built and inaugurated in 1995. The plans for the second stage of the project were drawn up in 1997 and a terminal and service building were built, the works finishing in January 1999. On 2 June 1999, Leon's civil airport was officially inaugurated, following which Iberia established scheduled flight routes to Madrid and Barcelona.

In 2003 a new Rescue and Fire Fighting Services Building was built, with its corresponding developed and landscaped area, as well as a technical block and an elevated water tank. In October 2005, the runway and aircraft parking aprox extensions were put into service and an instrument landing system (ILS/I) was installed.

In 2007 a 3000 m new runway was inaugurated. Nowadays, León Airport previsons say that in a short term the airport will be up to handling 500,000 passengers annually with national and international flights.