ARCHIVED - Lower airline tariffs at Corvera airport may attract more flights

The move is introduced throughout Spain by the government after the collapse of Thomas Cook

After the collapse of the global travel group Thomas Cook last month Enaire, the public company which manages air navigation in Spain, has announced that it is reducing the tariffs charged to airlines at all airports managed by Aena.

The disappearance of Thomas Cook and its subsidiaries hit the tourism sector hard in some parts of Spain, and in response the government has opened lines of credit up to a maximum of 200 million euros for businesses affected in the regions of the Canaries, the Balearics, the Comunidad Valenciana, Catalunya and Andalucía. Murcia is not directly affected by the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook, but one of the measures introduced in other regions has been to reduce airport tariffs in an attempt to attract more flights, and as a by-product of the move the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera will also become a cheaper destination for airlines to fly to.

It should be remembered that there have been fewer flights and passengers at Corvera this summer than in the summer of 2018 at the airport in San Javier, which closed to civilian traffic in January to make way for the new facility: in August, for example, 932 flights took off and landed at Corvera, as opposed to 1,046 in San Javier in the same month last year.

The lowering of tariffs will, of course, do nothing to divert traffic from the nearby airport of Alicante-Elche to Corvera as the same reduction applies at both, but it may just convince airlines to lay on flights from northern Europe to the Costa Cálida rather than to other destinations in and around the Mediterranean.

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/