In addition, a 300 m (980 ft) long foot bridge was built to connect the terminal to the nearby Madrid–Seville high-speed rail line, towards a site for a railway station; construction of this transportation link was never started, though had such a project been undertaken and completed, it would have made Ciudad Real Airport the first in Spain to be linked to the AVE rail network, with travel times to the closest cities (Madrid and Córdoba) of 50–60 minutes.

The airline service ran three flights per week from London Stansted,[5] until its discontinuation on 11 November that year, having flown approximately 22,000 passengers into or from the airport.

[6] Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling became the only airline serving the airport at this point, running flights to Barcelona, Paris and Palma de Mallorca, until it eventually ended services on 29 October 2011.

By 2012, the airport's financial difficulties forced the management company to file for bankruptcy, after accumulating more than €300 million of debt,[7] eventually going into receivership.

Meanwhile, in 2006 the main airport of Madrid (Barajas) finished work on an expansion that allowed it to handle 70 million passengers a year,[11] relieving the previously over-saturated facilities.

[4] On 9 December 2013, having been considered to be a significant contributor towards the financial trouble of the creditor institutions and the Castilla-La Mancha Regional Government, Ciudad Real Airport was put up for auction with a minimum asking price of €100 million.

[22] However, the Commercial Court rejected the bid on the grounds that the offer was too low,[23][24] and that the terminal building and the car parks would not have been included in the deal.

[25] In September 2015, an unidentified UK group made an offer to the court of €28 million for the airport,[26] though complications led the sale to fall through.

However, by July 2021 half of the aircraft were put back into operation by their respective airlines,[42] and the airport closed its doors temporarily as it had defaulted on its payments to several suppliers.

[47] The airport is located next to the A-41 motorway (exit 178), that currently connects Ciudad Real and Puertollano, but was originally planned as a Madrid-Córdoba alternate route.

Other routes serving the airport are N-420 (Córdoba to Tarragona via Cuenca and Teruel), N-430 (Badajoz to Valencia via Albacete) and N-401 (Madrid to Ciudad Real via Toledo).

More frequent train services are available from the nearby stations at Ciudad Real and Puertollano: Before opening and after closure, the airport has been used in a number media ventures: