Airport Guide

History of Girona Costa Brava Airport

In the space of a few short years, Girona Airport has emerged as one of the leading gateways to the Iberian peninsular for international travellers, and in particular those heading to the beaches of the Costa Brava or the cosmopolitan and bustling Barcelona. However, 1968, the year the airport was founded was a different story. Though the Franco regime was busy pushing Spain as a package holiday destination, passenger numbers remained relatively low for many years, with the terminal at nearby Barcelona dealing with the bulk of the air traffic. Indeed, in 1993, Girona handled just 275,000 passengers.

The low-cost flight revolution changed all this, with budget carriers using Girona as a more affordable Catalan base and over the past few years the terminal and runway have been developed to allow it to cope with almost five million passengers a year.

Travelling to Girona Costa Brava Airport

Given that most passengers use Girona as a budget gateway to Barcelona, there are regular shuttle busses between the terminal and the Catalan capital, with a journey time of just over an hour. Likewise, one bus a day leaves for the nearby city of Girona and journey times are less than half an hour.

Also departing from outside the terminal are bus services to the coast, including resorts such as Lloret del Mar, Tossa da Mar and Malgrat de Mar.

However, travellers wishing to travel on by train will have to head into Girona centre first, from where there are fast links to Barcelona, though plans are underway to build a station for the future Barcelona-to-France AVE line at the airport.

Airlines Flying from Girona Costa Brava Airport

Unsurprisingly, given that Girona came to prominence after the low-cost flights revolution, leading budget carrier Ryanair is the major presence at the airport.

The airline flies to around 50 destinations across Europe. These include Birmingham, Blackpool, East Midlands, Liverpool, London Luton, Manchester and Newcastle in the UK, as well as Dublin and Shannon in Ireland. Bratislava, Hamburg, Munich, Olso and Venice are among the dozens of other foreign airports flown to by Ryanair.

In comparison, budget rival Wizz Air flies to just Budapest, Gdansk, Katowice and Sofia; Thompsonfly operates routes to Birmingham, Cardiff, London Gatwick, Manchester and Newcastle, while Smart Wings serves Brno, Ostrava and Prague.