Murcia’s Corvera Airport moves closer to reality
Positivity has emerged from the Spanish press with regards to the long-awaited opening of Murcia’s Corvera Airport. The Region’s Culture and Tourism Minister this week insisted that “everything is going well” and local estate agent Mercers remains hopeful of a spring-summer opening.
Spain’s third largest general interest newspaper bore the headline “An Airport on the Runway” following reassurance by Murcia’s Director General of Transport and Ports, Antonio Sanchez-Solis, that the validation procedures from the Spanish Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) are 80% approved – one of the last steps towards Corvera Airport becoming fully operational.
Chris Mercer, Director of Murcia-based estate agent Mercers, says, “This process has been long and drawn out, not helped by enduring recession, but it looks like we’ll finally get our new Airport. The Spanish aviation authority, AENA, has guaranteed that commercial flights currently operating in and out of Murcia San Javier will be transferred immediately across to Corvera upon opening. All airlines involved have agreed to cooperate. With 1.2 million passengers using San Javier in 2012, this isn’t a bad starting point for a new Airport – a major advantage over Spain’s so-called ghost airports of Cuidad Real and Castellon who’ve never handled a single passenger.”
These ghost airports have been playing on the mind of Murcia’s Culture and Tourism Minister, Pedro Alberto Cruz, who admitted this week that airports in Spain “have a very bad reputation”. But he went on to insist, whilst talking to Spain’s highest circulation newspaper, that Corvera “would not have the same fate as Castellon or Cuidad Real.” “We have to be confident, it’s possible that other elements of the economy or government aren’t conveying too much confidence but this (Airport) is on track”. Previous reports have also suggested that up to three of the nine million passengers currently using Alicante’s El Altet Airport would find Corvera closer and more convenient.
Amongst the remaining items pending at Corvera Airport are the security program awaiting ASEA approval, the enabling of a frontier and customs according to Schengen, the provision of weather services via the State Meteorological Agency as well as the final nod on restructuring airspace between commercial flights at Corvera and military operations out of San Javier. However, once open, the President of Murcia’s Chamber of Commerce, Pedro Garcia-Balibrea, believes that this new gateway to the Region will be a vital asset to promote residential tourism as, “many Europeans could have a second home in a place like Murcia and the best way of arriving from overseas will be this upcoming airport”.
An official opening date for Corvera Airport remains elusive but a spring-summer forecast is not inconceivable.
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