In a press release issued on Thursday, the Leeds/Bradford based low cost carrier, recently voted as Britain’s best airline, announced that it will be flying into and out of Corvera Airport from 29 March 2019, with operations to San Javier Airport ceasing from November 2018, due to the airport closure.
Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: “We are very impressed with the facilities at Corvera Airport, and we have been working hard to ensure that customers receive the same friendly welcome and VIP customer experience that Jet2.com and Jet2holidays is famous for. In the meantime our Summer 18 operation to San Javier will continue as normal.”
The statement went on to say that flights from Leeds/Bradford will start operating to Corvera from March 29th 2019, with three weekly services (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) operating until 25th October 2019, while from Manchester flights into Corvera will get underway on April 1st 2019, with three weekly services (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) also operating until 25th October 2019.
Although the announcement was welcomed by Corvera it came just a day after the airport’s former management company demanded almost 520 million euro from the region of Murcia following the cancellation of it’s former contract to build and to manage the new facility.
Sacyr had their agreement rescinded in March 2016 prior to the Government decision to retender the management contract, subsequently won by Aena. The amount being claimed is only slightly less than that originally awarded over ten years ago when the contract was initially granted to the consortium.
While San Javier airport was always considered as being adequate to meet the needs of the Mar Menor, the anticipated opening of Corvera, and the impending arrival of the AVE High Speed Train Network into the city of Murcia, are now causing genuine excitement within the Regional administration which is now producing forecasts suggesting a substantial increase in the number of visitors to the Costa Calida.
They say that this will bring with it a greater demand for property and hotel accommodation, which seems to have been launched already with the anticipated re-opening by Sheraton of the 5 star hotel at Hacienda del Alamo and the agreement signed with Sareb for the construction of a further 1000 properties, and 3 large residential tourist resorts, in the area.
