ARCHIVED - 63 per cent increase in January passenger numbers at Corvera airport!

The figures are distorted by the temporary closures of Alicante-Elche airport during the month

Even if the figures are hugely distorted by unusual events during the month, the latest data regarding passenger numbers at the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera make for extraordinarily positive reading, with the January total of 67,570 representing a rise of 138 per cent over the equivalent month last year!

Those are official data published by the management company Aena, but since the airport only opened on 15^th January 2019 it is necessary to factor in those who travelled to and from Murcia-San Javier during the first half of last January: even so, though, an increase of 62.6 per cent was still recorded, a spectacular upturn after ten consecutive monthly falls in terms of the year-on-year comparisons.

Unfortunately, of course, these numbers are just a one-off, providing a tantalising glimpse of how things might be at Corvera at some point in the future. The sharp increase in passenger numbers is due entirely to the three days during the month during which the neighbouring airport of Alicante-Elche was closed to all flights, firstly because of a fire in the terminal building and then a few days later due to the gale-force winds and torrential rain of Storm Gloria.

While Gloria battered the eastern coast of Spain flights were also diverted away from the airport in Valencia, and as a result of these disruptions extra staff had to be hurriedly brought in at Corvera to deal with the 235 extra flights landing and taking off in Murcia!

The December figures for the Murcia airport come in the context of a nationwide increase of a 2.4 per cent at all of the airports managed by Aena in Spain. This brought the overall passenger total up to almost 17 million during the month, although there were decreases at some of the country’s busiest airports including Gran Canaria, Tenerife Sur, Palma de Mallorca and Lanzarote. At Alicante-Elche the closures led to a year-on-year fall of 5.25 per cent to 743,713, making it only the seventh busiest airport in Spain during the month (as opposed to its normal ranking of fifth).

Meanwhile, as a result of the greater diversity of flights at Corvera in January the dominance of routes to and from the British Isles was rather less accentuated than usual. In December as many as 87 per cent of all passengers were on flights to and from the UK and Ireland, this month UK flights accounted for “only” 63.8 per cent of passengers and Ireland another 6.2 per cent. Other countries making a welcome appearance on the list are Belgium (8.3 per cent), Germany (4.1 per cent), Spain (domestic flights) (4 per cent), the Netherlands (3.7 per cent), Sweden (2.3 per cent), Norway, Switzerland and Poland (approximately 1 per cent each), Finland (0.9 per cent), Denmark (0.8 per cent), and France (0.6 per cent).

And this despite Alicante airport having been closed for only a tenth of the month!

In the meantime, though, it’s nice to dwell on this quirky statistic, providing the highest January airport passenger total in Murcia since 2009 and a figure over three times as high as those reported in the first month of 2015 and 2016 at San Javier. If only it could be like this all the time!

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/