I read reports that an "anonymous" source at the Ministry of Public works has confirmed that all developments at Corvera International Airport are currently "on hold".
The opening of the airport, privately owned by Aeromur and to be
managed and operated by state-owned AENA, is believed to have been
blocked for "military reasons". The unnamed source went on to say how, aside from economic reasons,
the operation of the airport has been suspended at the eleventh hour due
to the importance that the Murcia area, has in offering security for
Spain, Western Europe and NATO in the event of a nuclear threat. Although this has still to be officially confirmed by government
sources, if done so it will bring questions as to why this issue has
only been addressed at this late stage in the proceedings and after
millions of euros in private and public investment.
I thought this sounded totally mad and bizarre...but it seems that Spain does have a worrying history when it comes to building "ghost" airports, only 400 kms north of us is the airport at Castellon, newly built and close to Valencia (hmm sounds similar to San Javier / Corvera ?) Castellon airport cost 150M Euros but has never seen a passenger !
Castellon airport was inaugurated in March 2011 but almost a
year later, and having failed to secure a license to operate, the virgin
airstrip is to be torn up. The State Agency for Air Security has found that its main strip is too narrow
for airplanes to turn around, and will have to be widened to meet
regulations.
It is the latest revelation in an ongoing saga of an airport that has come to
symbolise the reckless public spending of ill-thought out projects across Spain
that has left the country crippled with debt. Regional officials were aware of the narrow-runway problems within weeks of
the airport opening but kept it under wraps, Spain's daily newspaper El Pais
revealed on Wednesday. Last month it emerged that 30 million euros had been spent on publicity for
Castellon airport despite the fact that it had failed to secure permits to
receive air traffic. The private contractor hired to run the airport for 50 years is demanding that
the regional government of Valencia reimburse 80 million euros for
cancelling its contract. It was hoped that the new airport would open up a new area of Spain's eastern
coast to tourism but airlines have so far failed to be persuaded to add the
destination to their routes.
The region is already well served by busy international airports of Valencia
and Alicante to the south and Barcelona to the north, a recent study showed that of the 48 regional commercial airports built in
Spain over the last 20 years, only 11 make a profit.
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| Ghost Terminal at Castellon |
Good News 2nd !
A lot of reports running on the forums currently about the initial signs of life over at the Paramount Park the construction of access roads and drainage.
The Minister of Culture for the region of Murcia, Pedro Alberto Cruz, confirmed that the ceremony to lay the first stone of the Paramount Pictures theme park will commence on site at Alhama de Murcia, at 1.00 pm on Thursday the 31st of May with 200 specially invited dignitaries in attendance.
The event will mark the start of works to install the required infrastructure on the 1'000'000 sq mt site, with works expected to be complete in time for the park to be fully open for the 2015 season. Interesting to see that the site is also now visible from Condado !
Press release details to follow with pictures after the opening ceremony - if you are going let me know !
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| You get the idea of the proximity behind Naranjos 6 |
Why have the authorities only just realised that the military airforce fly over Condado on training courses.
ReplyDeleteThey have been doing so for the past three years at least & more planes fly over each year.
The only option I can see is that the training flight paths are changed. What a irrisponsable financial boo boo