ARCHIVED - 143,000 passengers fewer at Corvera airport so far this year than at San Javier in 2018

The October figures show a decrease of 23,000 on the same month last year

Despite the great optimism at the opening of the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera in January 2019 the inauguration of the new infrastructure has coincided with a significant drop in passenger numbers compared with the 2018 data at the airport of San Javier, and the figures for October which were published by Aena on Tuesday show a continuation of the downward trend that marked the summer flight schedules.

During October the number of passengers passing through the terminal building at Corvera was 108,503, representing a “loss” of 23,393 travellers compared to the same month last year at San Javier. This is the sharpest fall yet registered, equating to 17.7 per cent, and with the winter flight schedules now in operation it remains to be seen whether the slide will be halted.

The cumulative total for 2019 now stands at 1,034,890 (including the first fortnight when 21,559 people were on board the flights still taking off and landing at San Javier), over 143,000 (or 11.5 per cent) fewer than at the same point of last year.

The data also show that this June there were 804 flights at Corvera as opposed to 966 at San Javier last October, a decrease of 16.58 per cent.

To add to the disappointment, the October figures for the Murcia airport come in the context of a nationwide increase of a 1.5 per cent at all of the airports managed by Aena in Spain. This brought the overall passenger total up to 24.7 million during the month, with increases reported at most of the country’s busiest airports including Alicante-Elche, where a rise of 5.8 per cent took the total up to 1,427,490.

One aspect of the October data at Corvera which did not change, however, was the dominance of flights between the Costa Cálida and the UK and Ireland on the arrivals and departures boards. Passengers on UK-Murcia flights accounted for 82.9 per cent of the overall total, with the bulk of the rest travelling on the services to and from Dublin (8.8 per cent), Belgium (4.5 per cent) and Norway (2.4 per cent). With domestic flights within Spain and others to and from the Czech Republic and Poland all ceasing during the month each of these categories accounted for under 0.5 per cent, and the absence of airports in the Netherlands and Germany from the arrivals and departures boards at Corvera is still denting the overall figures.

Follow Murcia Today on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest news, events and information in the Region of Murcia and the rest of Spain: https://www.facebook.com/MurciaToday/