ARCHIVED - More flights this summer at San Javier airport as detailed checks continue at Corvera

Summer connections with the Costa Cálida resume for travellers to and from Frankfurt and Brussels

As the airport of Murcia-San Javier begins what is likely to be its last summer civilian flight schedule before the facility closes down to make way for the new Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera, all the signs are that the number of passengers passing through the terminal this year will be higher than at any point since 2010.

After another significant increase in the number of flights and passengers at the airport on the shore of the Mar Menor during the winter season, which was the busiest in the last eight years, the airlines operating at San Javier are selling 5.8 per cent more seats on flights to and from the facility during the summer season which has just begun and which lasts until 27^th October. Precisely 1,127,752 seats are available, according to Aena, with the figure of 6,240 flights representing a rise of 3.2 per cent in comparison to the summer of 2017.

Importantly, the good news at San Javier is not restricted to the number of flights available: there are also more destinations and routes, with Ryanair re-instating the service to and from Frankfurt which was last operated in 2007: direct flights to and from central Germany are running twice weekly, on Wednesdays and Sundays.

In addition, the airline Tui is continuing the connection with Brussels-Charleroi which operated throughout the winter, adding this destination to Antwerp on the arrivals and departures boards at San Javier.

At the same time, there are services to and from 14 cities in the UK - including five around London (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and Southend) - and apart from these and the flights to and from Germany and Belgium there are also others connecting the Costa Cálida with Dublin in Ireland, Oslo in Norway, Eindhoven in the Netherlands and Prague in the Czech Republic.

Corvera update

The upward trend in passenger numbers at San Javier over the last couple of years bodes well for the opening of Corvera, where it is forecast that next January all flights to and from the Region of Murcia will be diverted.

It was on 23rd March that the keys to the airport were officially handed over to Aena by the regional government, and the management company is now able to take on running and maintenance activities as well as being fully authorized to seek the relevant permits and licences which it is hoped will allow Corvera to come into service in well under a year’s time.

As one of the first steps, a team of technicians are carrying out a minute check of every operational detail of the installations, which have lain unused since construction was completed in 2012, ensuring that nothing is in need of replacement or improvement in order to guarantee the smooth running of the airport and that the most stringent safety requirements are met.

Instruments such as navigation equipment have hardly been switched on since they were declared fit for their purpose six years ago, and of course it is necessary to ensure that all of them are fully reliable, while another of the most important checks concerns the resistance of the tarmac on the runway before calibration flights begin this summer.

Similarly, every single sign, information board, marker beacon, light bulb, fencing panel and floor tile has to be checked, cleaned and polished, and although the control tower has been the subject of constant maintenance work over the intervening years it is clear that there is a considerable amount of work involved!

It has also been confirmed that, as is the case at San Javier, there will be no “finger” boarding corridors or shuttle buses to and from planes in use at Corvera: this not only reduces boarding times, it also makes it less costly, and therefore more attractive, for airlines to use the airport.

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