ARCHIVED - Certification for Corvera airport must all be done again

The cancellation of the Aeromur contract means the whole process must be repeated

Yesterday it was confirmed officially by the regional government that legal steps had been taken to formally conclude the management contract arrangement which had been entered into with the former concessionary originally contracted to build and run the Corvera regional airport which was built by a private consortium.

As long-term readers will know all too well, ( if you don´t, heres a link to the historical archive of Corvera airport articles)Murcia has a perfectly serviceable airport at San Javier, shared with the Spanish military, which is adequate for current passenger levels but offers no scope for the expansion of flight services due to the nature of its shared military usage. A private consortium had opted to build a new international airport at Corvera, but when their plans collided with the onset of the construction collapse, they were obliged to seek financing in order to complete the project, the loan guaranteed by the Murcian regional government under former president Valcárcel.

However, due to a number of factors, passenger numbers continued to fall as the economic crisis in Spain took hold and Aeromur failed to open the airport as scheduled, a situation which finally concluded with the recission of their contract. With the whole situation threatening to get very messy, former president Valcárcel took the decision to renegotiate and try to find a workable solution, authorising former minister for development Manuel Campos to issue a contract for Aeromur to continue as airport manager while the situation relating to the concession was renegotiated in the expectation that Aeromur would once again resume the role as concessionary.

During this period Aeromur pushed ahead with plans to obtain all the necessary certification for the airport to open, although ultimately the situation ended with a complete rupture between the two parties and the threat of deadlock in the courts holding up the opening of the airport.

Yesterday it was confirmed that Aeromur should never have been permitted to continue acting as the concessionary to obtain certification, when in fact their concession had been cancelled, a loophole which now enables the regional government to press forward with the necessary steps to re-adjudicate the contract and seek a new concessionary.

However, this also means that all of the processes to obtain safety certification, operating licences which includes flight path calibration etc must all be done again.

Regional minister for infrastructure, Francisco Bernabé, explained yesterday that his department are currently working on the inventory of the airport which he hopes to have concluded by the end of the coming month, and had also contracted an independent consultancy to prepare the conditions for a new bidding round for the concession to operate the airport. The new concession would take into account the current flight levels at San Javier airport and the economic projections would be based on current data, as the former concession had been prepared using data from 2006.

His department were also continuing to work with the national ministry of development to formalise the situation regarding San Javier airport, and the paperwork which Aena would ultimately sign agreeing to close San Javier airport when Corvera airport opened as well as the compensation which would be paid. This documentation was being analysed by the legal and judicial department of Aena to ensure that all was in order as there are obviously far-reaching implications in several areas of national government once this document is signed as Aena is now partially privatised.

All of this, he estimated, would put the date by which the concession could be presented for bidding  at the end of this year, and only once a concessionary had been appointed could the procedures to apply for licences etc begin.

All of which, he believed, could give a final opening date of Summer 2016 for the airport.
On Monday Aena and the State Security Agency will be issued notifications that the contract with Aeromur has been once again rescinded.

Sr Bernabé said in a statement following the weekly cabinet meeting, that the action undertaken “is a necessary step in order to open a new bidding process for the management of the airport, and for its subsequent opening. “