At a cost of 67 million, the second runway of Murcia Airport, San Javier should be operational by the end of the month which is to be used exclusively for the military with the main runway to be solely used for civilian air operators.
This is excellent news for tourism in Murcia as it will extent the flight operation hours by 7 hours a day with more than 500 flights arriving in San Javier before 14th June. Passenger traffic in San Javier has fallen by 50% over the last 3 months and pressure is on the regional government to reverse the trend and start doing more to attract tourists back to this region.Over 18 million UK holidaymakers visit Spain every year and with the new Paramount Resort Murcia opening in 4 years time will no doubt increase.
The question arises whether there was enough visitors to warrant the cost of the second runway at Murcia with Corvera airport, built with private money, due to open in Spring 2012. Murcia Airport, San Javier is operated by Aena, working in conjunction with the Ministry of Development in central government.
The Mayoress of San Javier, Pepa García, said that the new infrastructure would be, "the perfect instrument for economic and social growth, not only for San Javier and the Mar Menor area, but for all of Murcia."
Following a dispute with the Murcian regional government, Rynair unfortunately pulled out of winter flights from San Javier, as did BMI baby. Jet2 did add some routes but the majority of winter flights are still continuing to fly into Alicante.
Whilst the opening of Corvera will undoubtedly create jobs, the closure of San Javier will undoubtedly cost jobs, and as the Mayoress made clear today, she will fight hard to keep the jobs within her own municipality, so has no intention of standing aside and handing the business over to Murcia, Corvera and Fuente Álamo.
The Murcian regional government is strongly supporting the creation of the Paramount Resort Murica which will hopefully generate over 4 million visitors per year. The terms of the license require the theme park to be finished by 2015. In the meantime, how will two airports viably survive within the region.
With the second runway operational and flight times extended, passengers are hopeful that more fights will be flying to San Javier, Murcia airport in the coming months.
