An isolated airport in Spain’s Aragon is serving as a parking lot for planes as carriers seek storage for jets that they are no longer using due to the security crisis in the Middle East.
Teruel Airport in eastern Spain is a former military airbase that usually operates no passenger traffic but serves as an aircraft maintenance and aircraft storage facility. Its position, to the northwest of the Mediterranean, and its dry, salt-free climate and high elevation, make it an ideal, non-corrosive environment for parked passenger jets whose schedules have been disrupted. During the COVID-19 travel lockdowns, at least 140 aircraft were stored there.
Now, thanks to airspace closures and cancelled routes in the Middle East, 20 widebody aircraft were expected to arrive at Teruel by 21 March, including 17 belonging to Qatar Airways. Reports have identified at least four Airbus A330s, an Airbus A380, two Airbus A350s, and a Boeing 787. The airport usually averages two arrivals per day.
El aeropuerto de Teruel se convierte en parking de los aviones de Qatar Airways que han suspendido sus líneas por la guerra con Irán
— Atlas News (@atlasnews_x) March 23, 2026
📍Teruel 🎥https://t.co/Z0QIkwNBfc pic.twitter.com/Lg1YflioU6
Teruel can cope with sudden influxes because of the very fact that it does not handle passenger traffic, which frees up apron space that would normally be required for commercial use. It boasts 120 hectares of parking, enough to house 250 widebody aircraft and up to 400 narrowbodies.
Even so, the airport’s General Manager, Alejandro Ibrahim, said the number of planes arriving is “not normal”, adding, “But companies are revising their fleets and routes and looking for safer places to park their planes, and Europe fits the bill.”
Echoing those words, commentators are pointing to the arrival of so many Qatar Airways jets as a sign that the Qatari flag carrier does not foresee a rapid end to the closures affecting its base in Doha. While the carrier could have selected a desert to park in, like Gulf Air, which took its fleet to Saudi Arabia a week ago, the choice of Spain, and therefore a European logistics base, allows it to maintain its status as a key player in east-west connectivity.
🚨#Qatar Airways has moved roughly 17 widebody aircraft to #Spain’s Teruel Airport for storage as Middle East airspace disruptions continue.
— Chaudhary Parvez (@ChaudharyParvez) March 23, 2026
Aircraft including A380s, A350s, and 787s are parked outside the region as a precaution.#IranWar #israel #Breaking pic.twitter.com/ACQV2D4APj
Though Teruel might be hitting the headlines and gaining notoriety, Ibrahim indicated an impatience to get back to business as usual—its maintenance role, which is affected when more aircraft are on the ground, and fewer are in the skies. “The war has been going on for 20 days, so it’s only just beginning,” Ibrahim said. “We’d like this to end, because our main business is aircraft maintenance. The more planes that are flying (worldwide), our airport gets more activity.”
Amid World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates of industry losses at $600 million a day, however, there remains no end in sight to the hostilities afflicting the region.
