San Javier airport loses Madrid flights service

The regional government refuses to subsidise the Air Nostrum route and is instead focusing on opening more international routes

In spite of the improved flights schedule for San Javier airport this winter, which has seen more than double the normal numbers of flights maintained for the tourism down season, Murcia is about to lose its only national connection with Madrid.

Air Nostrum has confirmed that it is to close the Murcia San Javier to Madrid Barajas route which has been operating for the last 20 years, due, according to statements made in the Spanish language regional press to the “lack of viability”of the route and “notable fall in the number of passengers using the route.”

2007 was the peak year for Air Nostrum on this route, transporting 85,00 passengers between the Murcia Region and Madrid, although since this point passenger figures have entered into a slow decline.

The airport at San Javier has also undergone a slow loss of passengers from its own peak in 2007 when travellers reached the highest ever peak of just over 2 million during the construction boom years.

The last set of passenger figures released by Aena related to November, and at this point San Javier had handled 1,059,606 passengers. Given the anticipated level of flights scheduled for December, it is realistic to expect that the year will conclude with around 1.1 million, almost half of the 2007 figure in spite of the increase of nearly 100,000 people handled this year and the improved winter flights schedule. Currently San Javier has ten connections, with the UK, Ireland, Holland and Belgium.

Air Nostrum has never had any competition at San Javier for the national routes, the only other alternative being the airport at Alicante, which continues to break records following the construction of its new terminal. Last year it handled over 10 million passengers and offers several national domestic routes.

However, the arrival of the AVE high-speed rail link to Madrid in the province of Albacete, just over the border in Castilla La Mancha, has changed the habits of many former travellers between the Murcia Region and Madrid, who can park cheaply in Albacete and catch a train directly into the centre of Madrid without having to use a shuttle transfer or a taxi.

The rail link also offers a better schedule of trains, the regional minister for tourism and business development, Juan Hernández, admitting that the flight schedules were “very bad”as there are no flights into Murcia early in the morning and back out again in the evening, a pattern which encourages business travel.

The Spanish media have highlighted that the regional government refuses to offer subsidies to Air Nostrum to maintain the route, highlighting that other regional governments, La Rioja being an example given, offer subsidies in order to retain non-profitable domestic routes in their own regional airports.

Subsidies were given 20 years ago to open this route when the first commercial flights began to use the military air base, and Air Nostrum also operated a subsidized service to Barcelona at the same time, but this route was closed when the period established for subsidies expired and the regional government decided to drop the subsidy.

The regional minister, however, has stated this week that our own government is focusing its efforts on building international tourism and increasing the routes which can bring paying tourists to the region in the winter low season, a tactic which has helped to boost international tourism levels considerably during this last calendar year, a commitment to San Javier which does not include paying subsidies for non-viable domestic routes.

He maintains that the arrival of the AVE high speed rail link is the biggest threat to domestic air routes and is the choice of business travellers who can take advantage of the flexible time-schedules offered.

This year the AVE will finally reach Murcia City, although no specific date has yet been confirmed.

He also stated that the tourism sector was more concerned for the AVE between Madrid and Murcia to open and the new airport at Corvera to enter service.

Over the Christmas period the regional government announced that San Javier would close when Corvera opened, although as no concessionary has yet been appointed, and there are still many administrative steps which must be completed even when this has taken place, it is still unlikely that Corvera will open during 2017, certainly not in time for the summer season.