Corvera Airport costs 22,000€ a day
Friday, July 18, 2014 @ 11:00 AM
THIRTY MONTHS after construction was finished and it was ready to open, Corvera Airport remains a ghost town and yet another of Spain’s white elephants. The original forecast was that this international airport would handle three million passengers and 23,000 flights per year.
Although the Murcia region already had the small but popular airport at San Javier, the Provincial Government took the decision to build a second airport without having the funding to buy out the concession and management at San Javier or having the full grant funding for Corvera. The international airport was completed in January 2012 and in total, more than 250 million euros was invested.
Manuel Campos, Minister of Fomento de Murcia said: “The airport will open in December 2014, however this does not mean that the planes are to fly into Corvera in December.” However, the Corvera concessionaire Aeromur does not wish to open the airport and have wanted a guarantee that the San Javier airport, located just 30 kilometres away, will be closed so as not to compete for flight slots but someone will first have to buy out the San Javier concession for about 70 million euros.
At present Corvera Airport is costing Murcia almost 22,000 euros per day; eight million euros per year to lay dormant because the autonomous community had to take over the loan to cover the 182 million euros to construct the airport, which was endorsed by the Murcian Government.
Corvera International Airport was planned at the time of the a projected real estate boom, in order to attract the large number of tourists and foreign nationals who now claim they were offered the beaches and resorts with large housing developments, hotels and first class golf courses in the region of Murcia. Murcia's tourism potential and use as a second home destination were two of the major arguments for its construction.
Whether or not passengers who live on the Orihuela Costa and along the coast will wish to travel from Corvera rather than El Altet, when and if San Javier closes, also remains to be seen, and is an option seemingly not considered by Murcian politicians. Evem if Corvera opens in December, don’t expect to see any commercial flights landing until at least the autumn of 2015, if not 2016.
Source: RTN