ARCHIVED - Murcia government upbeat as Corvera airport celebrates its first year of passenger flights

Some expectations have been exceeded but the fact remains that passenger numbers are significantly lower than in the last year at Murcia-San Javier

Wednesday 15th January marked the anniversary of the first commercial passenger flights to land and take off at the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera and to coincide with the occasion the regional government reiterated its upbeat interpretation of the figures regarding traffic passing through the facility over the last twelve months.

By October the accumulated passenger numbers had reached the one million threshold above which management company Aena are obliged to pay a tariff to the government of 84 cents per passenger, and José Ramón Díez de Revenga, the minister for Development and Infrastructures in the regional government, reports that at present the airport is generating revenue of 1,108,592 euros. In addition, Sr Díez de Revenga asserts that although passenger numbers are significantly lower than in the previous twelve months at Murcia-San Javier, most of the routes which have been dropped by airlines would have disappeared from the scheduling in any case due to the uncertainties over Brexit and the effect it will have on the number of people travelling between the UK and Spain.

It is also reported that the 1,090,954 people passing through the terminal building between 15^th January and 31^st December last year were 10.5 per cent more than the figure forecast by Aena.

However, other interpretations of the data are also being aired. Firstly, it is not completely clear how Sr Díez de Revenga reached his figure for the government revenue generated: leaving aside the fact that the official Murcia government press release actually quotes a figure of “1,108,592 MILLION euros”, if the tariff of 84 cents is applied to the total number of passengers, the resulting total would be just over 916,000 euros. Unless over 228,000 passengers used Corvera in the first fortnight of January – and in reality the figure is likely to have been around 18,000 – there must be another source of income involved.

On top of this, it has to be said that revenue of 1 million euros will not be enough to make a serious dent in the debt of 182 million euros owed by the government in respect of a loan for which it acted as guarantor on behalf of Aeromur, the consortium which was initially awarded the construction and management contract at Corvera before it was rescinded in 2012. Bearing in mind the secondary investments which the government has had to make in order to bring the airport into service, including a 240,000-euros subsidy for the company which runs the bus services between Corvera and the coastal and golf resorts of the Costa Cálida – the benefits are even less significant.

As for the dropping of routes due to Brexit, this may be partly true but it is hard to understand how the departure of the UK from the EU has led to the disappearance of German and Dutch airports from the arrivals and departures boards at Corvera. Almost a third of the drop in passenger numbers (which amounted to over 160,000 in 2019) can be accounted for by Ryanair’s decision to drop the winter flights to and from Eindhoven and Frankfurt, and while the absences from this winter’s flight schedule also including the Jet2 services connecting the Costa Cálida with Edinburgh and Newcastle it would seem that there are more factors in play than Brexit alone.

However, there has been positive news at Corvera as well. The 22 regular routes operated over the last year have included new ones between Murcia and Asturias, Palma de Mallorca and Gran Canaria, with Barcelona to be added shortly, and the number of destinations in Norway has increased. In addition, charter flights brought tourists to the Costa Cálida from the Czech Republic and Poland during the year, and the official Aena figures show that when private planes, aero-taxis and ambulance flights are taken into account there were connections with 166 airports and aerodromes in 29 countries, including the USA and countries in Africa and the Middle East.

So, as the second year of flights at Corvera begins with an unexpected boost, as the fire which broke out at Alicante-Elche causes the diversion of numerous flights to the Region of Murcia, there are hopes that the drop in passenger numbers during 2019 can be reversed and that airlines can be persuaded to schedule services to and from an airport which remains full of potential but undeniably underused.

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