Región de Murcia International Airport (

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: RMU,

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: LEMI), informally also known as Murcia-Corvera, is an international airport in southeast Spain. It opened in January 2019 and replaced

Murcia–San Javier Airport Murcia–San Javier Airport is a military air base and former civilian passenger airport located in San Javier, Spain, San Javier, southeast of Murcia, Spain. It is owned by the Spanish Air and Space Force. It was replaced (after several delays ...

. It is situated between the villages of Corvera, Los Martínez del Puerto and Valladolises within the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Murcia Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...

Development

Tourism to the Murcia region has grown steadily for several decades, becoming popular as a less expensive alternative to established holiday areas such as the

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. Expansion of the airport serving the area, Murcia–San Javier Airport, was becoming impractical due to its primary function as a military airfield and component of the ''Academia General del Aire'', the officer training school of the

Spanish Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = Spanish Air and Space Force Anthem , mascot = , anniversaries = 10 December , equipment ...

. In 2002 the company Aeromur (Aeropuertos de la Región de Murcia) was formed as a vehicle for investment, finance and promotion of a new regional airport. In 2006 the government put construction and operation of the airport out to tender. The Aeromur consortium, now including construction firm

Sacyr SACYR S.A. () is a Spanish infrastructure operator and developer company based in Madrid. History The company was founded in 1986 as Sociedad Anónima Caminos y Regadíos and was renamed Sacyr in 1991. The company received their first concession ...

, won the tender for a term of 40 years and announced it would invest 550 million Euros in the project. Construction work began in July 2008, with the opening of the airport planned for 2010. In 2009 building stopped as Sacyr had run out of money. As banks were not willing to loan the funds to Sacyr, the regional government stepped in and guaranteed 200 million Euros of credit. The airport was completed in 2012, but did not become operational until 2019, after years of contractual wrangling between the regional government, Aeromur and Sacyr. Before opening, the concession for operating the airport was withdrawn from Aeromur and awarded to

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. The airport was officially opened on 15 January 2019 by the

King of Spain , coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg , coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain , image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg , incumbent = Felipe VI , incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...

as ''Aeropuerto Internacional de la Región de Murcia –

Juan de la Cierva Juan de la Cierva y Codorníu, 1st Count of la Cierva (; 21 September 1895 in Murcia, Spain – 9 December 1936 in Croydon, United Kingdom) was a Spanish civil engineer, pilot and a self taught aeronautical engineer. His most famous accomplish ...

'', named after the Spanish aeronautical pioneer who invented the

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller. Whi ...

. The first flight to arrive at the airport was

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flight FR1824 from

East Midlands Airport East Midlands Airport is an international airport in the East Midlands of England, close to Castle Donington in northwestern Leicestershire, between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is () to the south and Lincoln () nort ...

Facilities

The airport has a single passenger terminal of 28,500 m² and a single runway 3,000 metres long and 45 metres wide. Its initial capacity is 3 million passengers and 23,000 movements per year, with options for subsequent increase to 5 million passengers. The terminal has 9 boarding gates, 25 check-in desks and 4 baggage reclaim belts. The runway has one rapid-exit taxiway (RET) and 4 holding bays. It is equipped with precision approach instrument ILS CAT I at threshold 23 and non-precision instrument DVOR/DME.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Región de Murcia Airport:

Statistics

The year 2020 saw a decline in passengers and operations, due to the

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and travel restrictions that were implemented globally. A total of 217,912 passengers in 2,812 operations passed through the airport, which represented a decrease of 80% and 64.7%, respectively, compared to 2019.

Access

The airport is from the city of Murcia and from Cartagena. It has direct access to the Autovía A-30 highway that runs between the two cities. There are several public bus routes connecting the airport to its surrounding areas.aena.es - Transport and car park
retrieved 19 January 2019 In 2009, plans were revealed for the

AVE ''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...

network to serve the airport via a proposed Murcia to Cartagena line. This plan appears to have been abandoned.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Region de Murcia International Airport Airports in the Region of Murcia Airports established in 2018