ARCHIVED - Flights to San Javier thin on the ground until Christmas

Visitors to Murcia will have little choice other than to use Alicante

Expat businesses locally are reporting an “OK” summer, but many are reporting a fairly subdued autumn, the only upturn a spike co-inciding with the half-term holidays. However, once the holidays are over, there’s  a fairly barren run-up to Christmas ahead, as airlines cut their flight schedules to San Javier until a brief rush before Christmas as expats head back to their families or some come to spend their Christmas here with their grandparents.

Flights have been down this year by -6.4% on last year, but these levels are significantly lower than during the boom years of 2007-2008.

This year to date, 998,747 passengers have passed through the airport, 147.987 during September, but this figure is down by over 50,000 people compared to that of September 2008 when 198.772 passengers used the airport.

In 2008, the year closed at San Javier with 1.876,255 passengers, which was actually a fall of 6.3% on 2007, but with the two lowest months of the year ahead, it’s not likely that the San Javier figures will be much over the 1.1 million mark, given the low numbers of flights scheduled for the remainder of the year.

November last year was a low month for San Javier, with just 36,141 passengers, a fall of -2.7% on 2010 and December even worse, with just 28,753 passengers, a fall of -1.1%, a total of just under 65,000 people. Even if the same numbers come through this year, it will still only bring the total traffic down to under 1.1 million, a significant difference from 2008 and its 1.87 million passengers.
And the flights are looking a bit thin on the ground as the airlines cut back from 17 routes to just 5 regular routes for the next 6 weeks.

Ryanair has cut back to just 2 routes, Air Nostrum will maintain just one route linking Murcia to Madrid and Jet 2 will stop flying to Murcia between 6th November and the 19th December, when Christmas and New Year flights will resume.easyjet are operating from Bristol and Gatwick.

Ryanair have confirmed they will be flying from London Stansted and Dublin, each with 3 weekly flights on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Jet2 have confirmed that their flight schedules to Murcia San Javier are:
6th November to 19th December - No flights to Murcia San Javier, full flight service to Alicante
20th December to 6th January – Flights to Leeds and Manchester
7th January to 13th February – No flights to San Javier, full flights service to Alicante
14th February onwards – Flights to Leeds and Manchester
Following this, the full summer schedule will resume with existing routes, to Belfast, Blackpool, Edinburgh, East Midlands, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle, plus the addition of Glasgow.
Jet2 said that they have added the Christmas and New Year services for San Javier to enable residents in the region to return to their families during the peak seasonal weeks without having to travel to Alicante.

Easyjet have yet to confirm their flight frequency, but we have been informed that they are still operating between Bristol and Gatwick.

All of which means that San Javier is likely to be fairly quiet until just before Christmas, and local businesses can only hope that the journey from Alicante doesn´t deter our potential clients from travelling to the Region of Murcia during the next 6 weeks.

And if you want a flight for Christmas, book up now, as seats are limited.

What a disappointment that the paperwork isn´t ready for operations to transfer from San Javier to Corvera now during the down season.