ARCHIVED - San Javier Aena employees will transfer to Corvera

 However, the future is uncertain for employees of associated businesses

The recent confirmation that the opening of Corvera airport will mean the closure of the facilities at San Javier has an effect on all of us, and we face uncertainty over where we will fly from, which airline well use and how much the car park will cost. But these little niggles are nothing compared to the insecurity of those currently earning their living at San Javier.

Over the last few weeks their only source of information regarding the future has been what they read in the papers, but now at last there is evidence of commitment from those who will decide their futures. The trades union CCOO has confirmed after a series of meetings, that the 80 AENA workers currently at San Javier will be transferred to the new airport at Corvera.

All well and good, then, for these 80 individuals, but there are approximately 500 more people working at San Javier in airport security, cleaning services, shops and cafeterias, and their prospects are still far from clear. In response to this situation, at a meeting on Wednesday both they and their 80 AENA colleagues decided to present a common front in demanding guarantees for the future from the authorities.

In general terms the mood among these workers is more optimistic now that more information is beginning to be made public, and the workers will form a commission next week to represent all the groups of employees at San Javier. Airline employees are excluded from this commission: their future will be decided by the airlines which employ them.

For the 580, though, much will depend on the standpoint of the Ministry of Fomento, and in anticipation of the general election on 20^th November CCOO is already speaking to representatives of the PP opposition party.

In the event of all 500 indirect employees at San Javier being transferred to Corvera, it is not yet clear what the effect would be on the enormous staff selection training program organised at great expense by the employment services of the Region of Murcia since the start of 2011. 1,000 people have been selected from over 24,000 applicants to fill an initial quota of 500 vacancies at the new airport, and many of those on the training programs would now be competing directly with experienced members of staff from San Javier.

On the 4th October, representatives from the CCOO are meeting with the President of Aena in Madrid, and intend to also seek a meeting with the PP development spokesman in the Congress of Deputies.

Other parties affected by the move have also been making their feelings public: taxi drivers have expressed their fears for the future and voiced their concerns over the provisions for public transport linking the airport to the Mar Menor.

Whilst business associations have welcomed the news, San Javier businesses are concerned that the area will suffer a fall-off in trade, saying that connections to Corvera are more difficult for those living in the Torrevieja area. They argue that the drive from San Javier to this heavily populated and popular holiday area is straightforward from San Javier, but considerably more complicated from Corvera, and that it will in fact be easier for traffic from this area to fly from Alicante in future.

However, so many factors are up in the air, including the numbers of flights, which operators will be flying from which airport and of course, the all important question of whether the Paramount Park and Lifestyle Center will be built and provide enough traffic to make any of these airports viable.

Hopefully there may be some answers to at least some of these questions soon.