ARCHIVED - Work to open Corvera airport continues

Government officials fight to open the new Murcia airport in Brussels and Madrid

Hardly a day goes by in the Region of Murcia without news and opinion being published regarding the complex situation in which the new airport at Corvera finds itself, and this week has seen a continuation of the war of words, with the regional government attempting to convince authorities in Madrid and Brussels that the opening of the airport is an urgent necessity while the technical processes required to open the airport continue..

In theory the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera is not the regional government’s responsibility. It was built by a privately owned consortium (Aeromur) which has been reinstated as the concessionaire to run the facility as and when it opens, but the project has become something of a noose around the neck of the government, who guaranteed the loan made to Aeromur to build the airport, a loan which they now find themselves unwillingly liable for due to the financial difficulties of the concessionary. The Region of Murcia is attempting to bail Aeromur out with an equity loan, after the concessionary failed to open the airport for a whole range of factors, and now government officers are championing the cause in both Brussels and Madrid.

Among those doing so is Manuel Campos, the regional minister for Development, who is attempting to change the attitude of the Ministry of Defence regarding the closure of San Javier airport. This is now seen as a necessity in order to make Corvera viable, as current traffic levels are deemed unviable for the co-existence of two airports, but state-owned management Aena are demanding 36 million euros of compensation in order to end civil aviation operations at San Javier after investing this money into improving the facilities at San Javier airport. Should this happen, the running of San Javier will revert to the Ministry of Defence, who will regain the entire airport which was theirs before the Mar Menor tourism boom began in the 1970’s and San Javier  was opened to civilian flights, and Sr Campos is seeking a meeting with Pedro Morenés, the Minister, in order to try to persuade him that it is therefore his Ministry who should foot the compensation bill. On a recent visit to Cartagena Sr Morenés referred to a prior agreement by which this would not be the case.( The military has seen its own budgets cut along with other central government ministries).

According to Sr Campos, “everyone wants a civil airport in Murcia, and everyone wants it to be at Corvera”. Unfortunately it seems that his claim does not meet with universal agreement, ( the San Javier Mayor is certainly not amongst those keen to see San Javier close) but Sr Campos resolutely maintains that he hopes to receive all necessary permits and licences by 1st December and that the airport will open next spring.

In order for this to be possible progress will also have to be made on another front: the green light will have to be given by the European Commission in Brussels, where the Commissioner for Competition is investigating the validity of the proposed government loan to Aeromur. In the light of the Commission’s recent request for more information this green light cannot be taken for granted, and both Sr Campos and regional president Alberto Garre are upset that the process of reaching a decision in Brussels appears to be taking so long.

Sr Garre complained during the week that the Brussels officials seem to be unaware that the opening of the airport is “urgent”, and even suggested that some people may be working to deliberately delay a decision. Every time answers are given, he asserts, more questions are asked, and the regional president said that he will take the matter up with Commissioner Joaquín Almunia if necessary in order to avoid the control tower at Corvera being used “as a dovecote”.

Nonetheless, Sr Garre continues to be outwardly optimistic that eventually the go-ahead will be given by Brussels, despite the misgivings he himself has recently expressed over the way in which the project has been handled in the past.

Commissioner Almunia, whose department is now being criticized by the regional government of Murcia, was in fact the man who allowed the regional government to provide a guarantee on the previous 200-million-euro loan extended by the banking sector to Aeromur in 2010.

Other factors have also changed in the intervening period. Four years ago Sr Almunia ruled that the proximity of San Javier and Alicante-Elche was not an obstacle to the opening of Corvera, and that both airports could be operated simultaneously, whereas now the fall in passenger traffic means there are insufficient passengers for both to operate successfully.

Even in 2010, though, Sr Almunia considered the estimated passenger numbers presented by Aeromur and the regional government to be optimistic: now his department’s concerns appear to have been heightened by the intervening years of economic difficulties. (In 2007 San Javier processed 2.0 million passengers, in 2013 this had dropped to 1.1 million and figures were already falling in 2010 when the decision was taken to proceed with the construction of Corvera)

 After eight months of deliberation it is still not clear what the Commissioner’s final decision might be, and nerves are becoming strained in Murcia as a result, and the local elections, with their inevitable incessant battering of every conceivable chink in the armour of the governing PP, creep ever closer in May.

Meanwhile, the processes of preparing the airport to open continue, and this week the State security agency have carried out their final inspections of the security and safety facilities at the airport in order to issue all the safety certificates necessary for its final certification.

Regardless of the financing decision taken by Brussels, the airport can only open with all of these bureaucratic processes completed, and the date now being mooted is early April, so these final stages must be concluded now in order to complete the paperwork in time for a Spring opening.

This week inspectors from AESA, SENASA and INECO have checked the functionality of the control tower, the runways, lighting, operation of safety systems, emergency systems and lightning, back-up power systems and emergency response systems. The airport now has its own resident firecrew, comprising four firemen and controller, and has contracted the mandatory pest control services to ensure that runways and buildings are kept clear of birds and vermin. The airport authorities have also contracted the services of department heads for security, operations and maintenance and will complete the technical staffing once required, all of which should be sufficient to ensure that the airport receives all the necessary certification, although also of course, has meant increasing expenditure and basic costs

Click for archive Corvera airport articles charting the entire history of this current situation