Murcia Flights Take Off

Long treks northwards to Alicante airport will increasingly be a thing of the past for Murcia residents and visitors as more flights take off.

More and more airlines are introducing direct flights to San Javier, or Murcia, airport, from a growing list of European cities.
In fact, the growth in traffic at San Javier has been little short of spectacular. Although the airport is still an operational facility of the Spanish air force, civilian airliners have been bringing in new flights.

AENA, the body that operates many Spanish airports, including San Javier, calculates that this summer Murcia will see some 9,200 aircraft movements, which is a huge increase on previous years.

Passengers using the airport can see the work that is now going on to build a second runway and it is expected that this will open in October, greatly increasing capacity.
The car parking area was significantly expanded a few months ago, but it immediately became crammed with vehicles and now even more space is needed.
The growth in services operated by low-cost airlines explains most of the traffic growth. Passenger figures are expected to reach some 1 200 000 this year, compared with about 850 000 last year.

By far the largest group of passengers comes from Britain, with the Norwegians being the next largest group. This month a new flight to Stavanger starts.
Virgin will be operating flights linking San Javier and Brussels from May the 1st, with three flights a week, on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. However, Virgin has, apparently, caused something of a fuss by describing the flights on its website as being to "Alicante South."
This has failed to impress the officials at Alicante who argue, with justification, that it is nowhere near Alicante and that the description will cause confusion - especially as the real Alicante airport, El Atlet, is south of the city. Another airline has lodged a denuncia over the description.
Ryanair will be starting a daily service between San Javier and Liverpool from April the 1st.
Pressure on UK airports is increasing all the time and there was a recent press report that airport operator BAA would be announcing plans for a new runway at Gatwick. Supposedly, this is forbidden until 2019 under previous government policies but the project could be brought forward. A white paper on aviation said last year that a new runway should be built at Stanstead and possibly one more at Heathrow.

Environmental groups in Britain and Spain are unhappy with airport expansion plans, and there have been many court cases in the United Kingdom. With regard to the increasing number of flights at San Javier, Ecologistas en Ación has argued strongly against expansion.

More flights mean more noise, it says, with up to 100,000 people being affected in nearby Los Alcázares and Los Narejos alone. Aircraft noise leads to increased stress levels and detrimental health impact, including sickness caused by emissions. The group has called for expansion to be put on hold and the number of flights to be reduced not increased.

Another problem for operations at San Javier is the fact that the airport is the home of the Academia General del Aire, or the military flying school. They have first call on slots, and therefore, commercial operations are generally limited to the latter part of the day. It is predicted that the opening of the second runway will allow commercial flights to operate throughout the day. Other improvement work being carried out, include the construction of a new control tower, and expansion of facilities in the passenger terminal.

Meanwhile, the Murcia regional government is pressing ahead with plans for an entirely new airport, at Corvera, about 20 kilometres away. The government says that this will be open by 2007 and it has reserved four million Euros in its budget for the preliminary work. The overall cost of the project is estimated at 150 million Euros.
Round Town News
8 April 2005