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The airport bus service between Cartagena and Murcia and Murcia’s Corvera airport was axed during the Covid-19 lockdown due to a lack of people flying into the Region.

 

It has since been announced that, from June onwards, there will be twelve daily buses run by the company Interbus, which will go to and from the airport to Murcia’s two main cities – three from each destination to the airport and three going from the airport to the cities.

 

 

As we reported when the Regional Government announced the move, the timetables for the airport buses will be as follows:

 

 

UPDATE: the bus times have since been changed (June 15). These are the new bus times:

 

• Murcia – Corvera: 8.30am; 12.30am; 7pm
• Corvera – Murcia: 11.25am; 2.55pm; 9.25pm
• Cartagena – Corvera: 10.30am; 2pm; 9.25pm
• Corvera – Cartagena: 9.10am; 1.10pm; 7.40pm

 

However, the scarcity of the number of buses being put on and the times they leave do not match up with the times of most of the flights that depart from or arrive to the airport.

 

For instance, the first bus from Cartagena leaves at 10am, but this will arrive too late for those living in Cartagena who wish to take the early flights living from Corvera to Brussels, Bristol, Bournemouth and London Stansted before 11am.

 

Conversely, the 1pm bus, which is the next bus to depart Cartagena for the airport, arrives long before the 5.10pm easyJet flight to London Gatwick. Despite the perpetual advice to always arrive at the airport two hours before your flight leaves to allow plenty of time for check-in, anyone who has ever travelled through Corvera airport will know that it doesn’t take two hours to check in, much less three and a half.

 

For the final buses of the day, those travelling to the airport from Cartagena will arrive long after the final flights of the day have departed, as the last flights out of Corvera are generally the 9.30pm Ryanair service to Dublin and the 9.40pm easyJet flight to Gatwick. This final bus will essentially be a useless service that will be like riding a ghost bus.

 

By the same token, the final buses departing from the airport to both Murcia city and Cartagena leave too early to carry passengers arriving on the last flights of the day (also from Dublin and Gatwick).

 

The paucity of buses and the poorly programmed times of the services will leave many travellers either having to take expensive taxis to and from the airport still, or else find some other way to move around. What’s more, there has as yet been no talk of reinstating the bus lines to Mazarrón and Águilas, nor those to the Mar Menor and La Manga.

 

If the airport buses only go to Cartagena city and Murcia city, people needing to get to other localities such as Mazarrón, Camposol, San Javier, Los Alcázares or other towns around the Mar Menor will still have to take taxis anyway to get to their final destination.

 

 

Of course, in order to put on more buses to and from Cartagena and Murcia, as well as including other popular destinations in the Region of Murcia on the stops, there has to be enough demand and more flights coming through the airport.

 

For instance, it’s astounding that there are no flights between Corvera and anywhere in Germany or the Netherlands when there are many German and Dutch tourists and expats who regularly wish to fly between the two destinations. There are also no flights from Sweden, and only one Scottish destination.

 

Murcia’s Regional Government has promised to closely monitor the developing situation, and will put on more buses if they see there are plenty of people who will use them. But if the service is at the wrong times for anyone to use, how and why is anyone going to use it?

 

The situation is worth following as the summer goes on, and things may pick up as more flights come through and more bus services are (hopefully) added.

 

But for now, the current plans for the airport bus to and from Murcia Corvera airport is woefully inadequate.

 

 

Image: Archive