ARCHIVED - Corvera airport management contract modified with a view to post-Covid resumption of flights

The Murcia government encourage Aena to adapt the airport to post-Covid travel

Given the almost total lack of air traffic at the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera – during the first quarter of 2021 no more than 3,898 passengers passed through the terminal building at an average of just 42 per day – it is understandable that doubts have been raised over the viability of the facility as a going concern, and in an effort to guarantee its survival in the immediate future it is reported in La Verdad that the regional government has finalized modifications to the management contract held by Aena.

The coronavirus pandemic has affected air traffic drastically at all Spanish airports, but possibly nowhere more than at Corvera due to its very heavy dependence on routes to and from the UK. As a result of the scarcity of flights – and of airlines preferring to use Alicante-Elche for the few services they are operating – flight numbers dropped to as low as 57 arrivals and departures during the whole of the month of March after the complete cessation of activity last spring.

In the light of this, the contractual modifications proposed by the Murcia government are designed to facilitate the “re-launch” of the airport just over two years after it opened on 15^th January 2019, and to re-direct anticipated investment to adapting to the new circumstances created by the Covid pandemic. Behind these modifications is the assumption that over the next 20 years or so there will be ample time for the current losses at the airport to be recouped, and that the lack of activity there in recent times has resulted in less wear and tear on fixed assets and therefore lower maintenance and repair costs.

One of the most important aspects addressed in the modifications is the annual fee paid by Aena to the government, relieving the management of a significant expense at a time when incomings are minimal. Last year the government paid the company 2.6 million euros to compensate for the period of forced inactivity between March and June, during the first wave of the pandemic.

In short, the Murcia government is doing its utmost to ensure that one its flagship projects of the last 20 years, the airport in Corvera, survives the pandemic intact, and lives on to recover from the damage done over the last 15 months.