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Date Published: 11/01/2022

ARCHIVED - Murcia airport hoping to increase flight destinations in 2022

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

It is hoped that a cash injection from the regional government will boost the commercial air traffic through Murcia airport

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Murcia airport hoping to increase flight destinations in 2022

As the Region of Murcia International Airport, more commonly known as Corvera, struggles to recover from the pandemic, the Minister of Tourism has announced a large cash injection which will hopefully increase flights operating between the region and destinations such as Porto, Norway, Paris and the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela in 2022.

Corvera turns three-years-old on January 15 and although the airport began the winter season in October in a promising fashion with connections to Morocco, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Canary Islands, the limited number of routes currently operating is still considerably lower than during the pre-pandemic winter of 2019.

Binter airline will continue to offer more than 30,600 seats between November and March to destinations such as Las Palmas, Casablanca and Oujda, as part of tourism board efforts to boost domestic tourism.

This year’s tourism budget includes 21.2 million euros dedicated to the Extraordinary Plan for Tourism Sustainability; of this, nine million will be allocated to tourism promotion and a further 1.5 million has been earmarked to “promote airport connectivity” with Corvera.

Despite a turbulent period at the height of the health crisis, Murcia’s airport increased its passengers by 13.5% in the first 10 months of last year compared with the same period of 2020, although pre-pandemic commercial air traffic levels remain elusive given the low number of routes currently operating.

This translates into total passenger traffic of 283,436 for 2021, 30% up on the figures for 2020, but 74% down when compared to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.

Before the controversial transfer of the airport facilities from San Javier to Corvera, the regional airport was processing more than 1 million passengers a year.

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