Bilbao Airport Departures

Aeropuerto de Bilbao

Address: 48180 Loiu, Biscay, Spain
Departments: DHL Global Forwarding · Santa Gloria
IATA code: BIO
Elevation: 42 m
Telephone: +34 913 21 10 00
Province: Biscay
Year of construction: 1928
Owner: Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea
Website: aena.es/es/bilbao.html

BIO departures today

Discover Bilbao airport departures

Bilbao airport is a smaller airport just a few kilometer north of the city. It is located in the north of Spain and processes about 5-6 million passengers per year. The first Bilbao departures took place almost 100 years ago for military activities. Passenger flights only came later and the airport was increasingly renovated and expanded.

The city center of Bilbao is relatively close, the distance between Bilbao Airport and the old city center (Casco Viejo) and the new city center (Abando) is 13 km. BIO departures to both destinations can be by car in 15 minutes. San Sebastian is 95 km from Bilbao Airport, the journey time by car is about 70-80 minutes.

Bilbao Airport terminal

There is a terminal called La Paloma. It is a small terminal but fully equipped for BIO airport departures. After check-in at the upper level, go through security to the departures hall. There are 2 runways of 6,500 and 8,500 ft for all Bilbao flight departures.

Passenger Statistics

The airport has been slowly growing in passengers since 2000 with ups and downs. In 2019, nearly 6 million passengers used the airport. These were more than 25 thousand Bilbao airport departures. Many flights have been canceled due to corona and therefore there were only 1.7 million passengers in 2020. Because many of the offered routes are domestic, flights were soon added again in 2021.

Airlines and destinations at Bilbao airport

Most Bilbao departures are operated by Vueling with a market share of 35%. Other flights in operation are from the companies Lufthansa, Iberia, Air Europa, Easyjet, Norwegian Air, KLM, Air France, British Airways and Air Nostrum.

Many of these flights go to other Spanish destinations such as

Other Bilbao flight departures in Europe go to

Bilbao Airport history

In the region of Biscay there were several experiments to land and take off planes. In the year 1927 a plan was drawn up to build a real airport. However, it cost 10 years before construction started in Sondika. It was actually not ideal afterwards. Construction continued very steadily and it was not until the late 1940’s that it opened for a few flights to Madrid. There was no real terminal yet. It was not opened until two years later. There were already 2 runways of 1440 and 1500 meters long. In the 1960’s, the runways were upgraded (and extended) with the ILS landing system and a storm detection radio. The following decades saw several technological improvements and expansions at Bilbao Airport. In 2009 there was a new plan. The capacity had to be doubled to 8 million passengers per year.