It might sound like a Spanish side you'd find on a dodgy football video game, but Real Ciudad is actually one of the biggest infrastructure catastrophes of the 21st century.
Constructed at a price tag exceeding €1.1 billion, it launched in 2009 with promises of becoming a major aviation hub that would ease congestion at Spain's other airports, whilst attracting numerous low-cost carriers from throughout Europe.
Yet it barely lasted three years before closing down entirely, earning itself the nickname of Spain's "ghost airport."
The scheme was conceived during the peak of Spain's mid-2000s construction bubble, and its scope was massive. Featuring one of Europe's longest runways at 4.1km, and with a terminal built to accommodate up to ten million passengers annually, investors poured money into what seemed a guaranteed return.
The development was marketed as providing an option to Madrid, though a direct link to the Madrid-Seville high-speed railway was also promised, reports the Mirror.
But from the outset, it was evident this would be anything but straightforward. Problems emerged at every turn.
Given it sat 200km from Spain's capital Madrid, few passengers were persuaded to make the journey, even with cheaper fares on offer. Making things worse, the high-speed rail station that would have reduced travel times to less than an hour never materialised.
Environmental objections also held up its opening for years, driving costs higher and damaging early prospects. Airlines quickly became sceptical about the venture, with Air Berlin, Air Nostrum and Ryanair, who had initially launched routes to the airport, all withdrawing them due to lack of demand.
Vueling was the last airline standing until it too pulled out in late 2011, leaving the airport without a single scheduled passenger flight just three years after its grand opening.
Unsurprisingly, the operating company had racked up more than €300 million in debt and filed for bankruptcy the following year. In April 2012, the last operations ceased and the airport went dark.
However, things were set to get even worse. Despite the billion-euro investment, the site was put up for auction with a minimum asking price of €100 million, a mere fraction of its initial cost.
Even with this massive reduction, no one was willing to make the purchase for anywhere near that amount.
In a highly publicised incident, a Chinese investment group attempted to buy the entire airport for just €10,000, a bid that was swiftly rejected but led to a series of embarrassing headlines.
After years of failed attempts and legal complications, the airport was finally sold in 2018 for around €56 million, a fraction of what it cost to build.
Ciudad Real reopened in 2019, not as a passenger hub but as a storage, maintenance and aircraft-dismantling facility.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was briefly used to house dozens of grounded jets, but it has never regained the role it was built for.