Corvera may not be operational until Summer 2013.

All hopes of opening this summer are quashed.

Although nobody expected that the new Corvera Regional Airport had any realistic chance of opening for business this summer, it had been anticipated that operations would begin for the winter schedules, but it now appears that these hopes may have been a little premature.
President Valcárcel is reporting as having said to La Verdad reporters over the weekend that the new airport will not be opening fully until the summer season of 2013. According to the Spanish daily, he declared to the paper that we would have to wait until next winter to begin the transfer of commercial activities from the installations of San Javier to those of Corvera. Given the low number of flights and the limited number of routes, this means that the airport won´t become fully operational until next summer, providing that negotiations can be concluded between Aena, the Regional Government and the concessionary, Aeromur.

" We want to do things well, " he said, " and with all the guarantees. We´re not going to do this in a hurry. "
He also emphasised that although the Ministry for Development ( Fomento)  had expressed a favourable opinion towards the possibility of 24 hours a day operations that there was still a vast list of technical reports and details which would have to be undertaken in order for the airport to open.

With the quantity of paperwork still to be completed, it was unrealistic to even consider opening this summer.
Although in truth, none of us ever realistically expected that they would!


Recently the paper had printed a piece in which Aeromur ( the airport concessionary who has built the new airport at Corvera) had said that it would be "very complicated" to get the airport open this summer, blaming the changeover in Government and the delays this had provoked as being the reason why they would be unable to open for business this season, so this announcement, although not a formal one,  is not unexpected, more inevitable.

The real issue is whether the airport will commence operations with the winter schedules, or aim to commence with the summer schedules next March, having run a few flights during the winter with a selected airline or two to test the facilities.

Realistically, it´s not viable to partially open the airport without a full range of services being in place to service the needs of the passengers, which would mean operating at a financial loss, or failing to give a full level of passenger services. It´s not just a question of bringing in a few flights to see how it goes when there are 500 staff expecting to be paid a salary and businesses with a living to earn, so it is unlikely that a half-hearted opening would be considered, more likely that full opening would be scheduled for the spring next year.
So this leaves us then with the very real scenario that Corvera will not begin operating this winter, but is aiming for a more realistic spring 2013 for its first commercial flight timetables to begin in earnest.

More realistic, more achievable, although not the message the hotel sector and certainly the construction sector wanted to hear.
The regional government has been coming under increasing pressure recently to increase its levels of promotion for the region and do more to stimulate employment. The promise of the new airport opening soon has done much to soothe the voices of protest, and this announcement will also undoubtedly lead to raised voices of criticism if the summer tourism season fails to live up to expectations.
 

Quotes by President Valcárcel taken from La Verdad.

Image and text  : Murcia Today.