The Region de Murcia International Airport (RMU), commonly known as Corvera Airport, has launched the winter schedule that will connect the region with ten destinations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Morocco and the Canary Islands during the autumn and winter campaign.
The airlines will offer 181,800 seats and 1,096 flights during the new season, which operates between 30 October until 25 March, 2023.
Ryanair will fly to Birmingham and Manchester in the UK, and to the Irish capital, Dublin.
EasyJet will connect the region with London’s Gatwick airport.
TUI Fly will fly to Brussels and to the Belgian city of Ostend, near Bruges.
Air Arabia maintains flights to Casablanca and Oujda.
Binter will offer the only national connection with Gran Canaria. Starting in November, flights from Corvera to the islands will depart on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Sources from Aena, the airport’s concession company, have indicated that the offer of seats for the next six months “involves the recovery of 82.2% of seats and 87.7% of flights compared to the same season in 2019 -2020, before the outbreak of the pandemic.
The European market brings together the largest offer of seats with 136,744 seats available, 35% less than the winter season of 2019.
The growth of the national market stands out with 16,316 seats and an increase of 41%.
Africa (which did not have flights in 2019) accumulates an offer of 28,800 seats.
In percentage terms, domestic flights will experience the largest increase, with a rise of 41%, followed by connections with Belgium, which will increase by 44%.
The region’s international airport had flights to 22 destinations during the summer season, after two years marked by restrictions that have limited the arrival of passengers from abroad.
Between April 1 and October 30, the airlines operating in the Region have put almost a million seats on sale, which represents practically 96% of the seats offered in 2019.
In September, the airport received 105,737 passengers, representing 81% of those it reached in 2019. In the first nine months of the year, 696,595 travellers have passed through Corvera.
In the month of September, the concessionaire highlights the increase in national traffic, which exceeded the figures prior to the pandemic by 82.7%. Last month Corvera received 761 flights, which implies a recovery in movements of 84.7%.
Although Corvera has been gaining popularity since taking over operations from San Javier, at the time a decision which was not favoured by the majority of passengers, it is still not without operational problems.
This weekend, a Ryanair flight from Luton (London) was diverted to Alicante-Elche Airport because Corvera had closed, due to the fact that the flight was delayed and it would have landed after the operating hours of the airport had been exceeded.
The problem originated in the delay of the flight, which took off from the English airport several hours later than scheduled due, apparently, to the effects of storm ‘Beatrice’, which caused strong winds and instability and delayed numerous operations during the weekend.
On Wednesday the 19th there was a similar problem with a flight to Dublin, which was due to take off at 9:30p.m., but was also delayed. Passengers were transferred by bus to Alicante, from where the Ryanair plane took off, arriving at its destination at 4 in the morning.
The airport operator, Aena, confirms that Sunday’s flight landed in Alicante, instead of Murcia, due to the accumulated delay. They recall that the Corvera facilities are operational from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., with a possible extension until 11:30 p.m. to deal with delays and eventualities.
In this case, however, this margin was exceeded. Aena also points out that from that time the airspace in the area is closed, which is controlled from the San Javier General Air Academy. There they are in charge of the manoeuvres to enter and fly over the air space, while the Corvera controllers are in charge of the landing and take-off operations.
It is not the first time that a flight from the Region of Murcia has to use Alicante as it is outside business hours. The companies that operate at the regional airport know the hours of operation and, therefore, must inform travellers when problems occur, emphasises Aena. The operator maintains that the flight was not diverted, but that they acted in accordance with protocol. “The airlines know the airport’s operating hours in advance, and they know perfectly well the closing time,” emphasises Aena, which considers that the responsibility lies with the airlines.
