ARCHIVED - Protesters demand a lifeline for San Javier airport

Concerns for San Javier jobs when Corvera opens

Between 100 and 200 people gathered outside the parliament of the Region of Murcia in Cartagena on Wednesday to express their dissatisfaction at the plans to close San Javier airport in order to make it possible for the new facility at Corvera to open, and they will not have been best pleased when they heard what regional president Alberto Garre had to say on the issue.

Sr Garre confirmed during his appearance in parliament that he is taking part in negotiations with Aena regarding the closure of San Javier. Despite the fact that he also insisted that he is making the safeguarding of all jobs at San Javier a priority in these negotiations, this is not what the protesters wanted to hear.

Although they bravely waved placards describing San Javier as a publicly-owned and profitable concern, some of those protesting at the government’s plans to close the airport are already resigned to the fact that nothing will change Sr Garre’s mind. Santiago Pina, the leader of the platform group defending San Javier, says that the decision to end flights to the Mar Menor airport is a political one rather than a strategy based on financial or other criteria, although he also vows to continue fighting the cause.

Sr Pina maintains that the closure of San Javier would cause the loss of 450 direct jobs and 1,200 indirect ones, figures which are a lot higher than those of 80 and 450 quoted by Alberto Garre during the debate in the regional parliament.

Local residents and San Javier businesses are also unhappy about plans to change the location of the regional airport, those who have purchased property specifically to be near the airport complaining about the increased costs of travelling to Corvera, and local San Javier businesses who supply the airport or survive as a result of the business activity at the airport also predicting a substantial loss of revenue.

Taxi drivers in particular are unhappy at their potential loss of earnings: Corvera is in the municipality of Murcia, so Murcian taxi drivers will have priority over those from other municipalities and priority will be given to residents of the Murcia and Fuente Álamo municipalities when additional jobs are created at Corvera airport.

Again, it’s also worth pointing out that Aena is now a 49% privately owned business after its partial flotation on Wednesday when 49% of stock was sold to private investors. This will greatly increase the pressure on Aena to perform and deliver dividends to investors, changing the whole dynamics of how the airport infrastructure in Spain is run.

After inheriting an airport authority with 14 billion euros worth of debt just three and a half years ago, the current Minister of Development has transformed Aena into a concern which excited investors enough to warrant a 20% increase in share price on the first day of trading. Analysts predict that the company will greatly increase its capacity to handle more traffic, streamlining and change all part of the forward motion achieved during the last few years.

Whether San Javier will be sacrificed in order to move operations into a purpose built international airport without the restrictions of shared military use remains to be seen.

As Sr Garre said in his discourse, there’s still a long way to go before an opening date for Corvera can be confirmed and many loose ends which need to be tied off before San Javier can close.