Flight Delays at Corvera - get ready for 2013 ???

I am not overly surprised to read this morning that the planned opening of Corvera Airport for 2012 has been delayed.........its a bit like like waiting for your delayed flight to arrive..dont you think ???

  

With thanks to The Leader  for the article....

It now seems unlikely that Corvera International Airport will see any commercial airline activity until the summer of 2013 at the very earliest. The President of the Murcia Community Snr Valcarcel is reported to have told reporters from the Spanish press that his hopes for an opening in 2012 may have been a little premature. 

According to La Verdad he said that the airport would have to wait until the end of this year before it could even think of starting the transfer of services and staff from San Javier and given the disappointing number of flights and routes that the airport has so far attracted this means that Corvera is unlikely to become operational until the summer of 2013 and even this depends on the satisfactory outcome of negotiations being reached between AENA and the Murcia Regional Government regarding the airport concession.

Realistically Corvera could be ready to open with the limited winter schedules but it is thought that the more likely decision would be to run a few test flights during the winter period with one or two selected airlines before beginning with the summer schedule next Spring.

The authorities would want to have the full range of facilities available to service the need of its passengers so a winter opening  would probably mean operating at a financial loss. With over 500 staff to pay and shops and businesses needing to earn a living it seems unlikely that a half hearted attempt to open would even be considered.  It would appear to be much more likely that the airport will wait until it is able to open fully next Spring.

Valcarcel said that with the quantity of paperwork still to be completed, it was unrealistic to even consider opening this summer and with the Ministry for Development indicating a favourable opinion towards the possibility of round the clock operations there was still a vast list of technical reports and details to be undertaken.

“We want to do things well”, he said “and with all the guarantees so we are not going to do this in a hurry. “
In recent years the Murcia Government has been under immense pressure to do something in the region with regard to the stimulation of the economy and employment and until the announcements of the new International Airport and the Paramount Theme Park the economy in this particular part of the Province was suffering from severe depression.

However the promise of the two new developments went a long way toward soothing the voices of protest. This recent announcement will once again lead to raised voices of criticism if the summer tourism season fails to live up to expectations. It is most certainly not the message that the hotel sector and construction sectors wanted to hear

Following the article in La Verdad, and in order to avoid any further speculation, Antonio Sevilla, the Regional Minister for Public Works, released a statement confirming  that the new Airport would not begin operations until Summer 2013.

He  said that there are still many different departments of central government  to be approached. Progress is still being made, although he admitted that it is not proving to be as rapid as was first hoped, due in part to the change in staff in all the relevant government ministries following the general election last November.

According to information released last week by AENA, seven airlines, Air Nostrum, Bmibaby, EasyJet, Jetair Fly, Jet2.com, Ryanair and Norwegian Air, will operate throughout this summer from the current airport in San Javier.