San Javier will close to civilian traffic and Corvera will be run by AENA

The announcement came tonight following a meeting in Madrid

The Region of Murcia has tonight put out a press release in which it says that an agreement has been made which will result in the closure of San Javier airport to civilian traffic once the new Corvera International airport opens.

San Javier will not close, but will operate as a Military only base.

Aena will assume control of airport operations at Corvera airport, transferring existing San Javier operations and personnel to Corvera.

It says:

The Autonomous Comunity and the State arrive at an agreement that the International Airport of the Region of Murcia ( Corvera) will be the only commercial airport operating in the Region, and to that means, the business Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA) and it´s existing operations in the airport of San Javier, will take on the management of the Corvera installation.

This was announced this evening by the Consejero for Public works, Antonio Sevilla, and the Secretary of state for transport, Isías Taboas, after their meeting held today in Madrid, in which they showed their willingness to join forces to make the airports infrastructure viable, in accord with the negotiations previously held between the president of the Region and the Minister for Development . ( Fomento.)

The head of public works issued assurances that he would be speaking to both AENA and the Corvera concessionary, Aeromur, to ensure that they " initiate dialogue with the utmost speed to ensure that a definitive agreement is reached as soon as possible."

Both Sevilla and Taboas have agreed that the most important pre-requisite of the agreement is to ensure that all the staff at San Javier retain their jobs, and that all measures be taken to ensure the social impact on the employees and suppliers is minimised.

Both parties agreed that the transfer to Corvera would offer the best chance of stability and a successful future for all parties.

This release came from the Region of Murcia, who have insisted since the inauguration of the second runway at San Javier that discussions were underway to close down San Javier as a commercial airport and return it to military only use, an assertion vehemently denied by Fomento ( Ministry for development of central government) who have always maintained that San Javier would not be closing.

This stance was questioned during the last few days following comments from the Government Delegate to the Region of Murcia, Rafael González Tovar, who indicated that discussions had in fact been underway since the day of the inauguration, but even on Friday this was being denied by Fomento.

At last, it now seems that we have a confirmation of the inevitable:

when Corvera airport begins operation the San Javier airport will close, and personnel and operations will transfer to Corvera.

Obviously there is a great deal of negotiating necessary to discuss packages with staff and suppliers, as well as firming up agreements with both potential suppliers to the new airport as well as those airlines who will be potentially operating from the new airport, but at least we now have an official press release from the Region of Murcia laying down the plans for the future.

This is likely to lead to a series of protests from businesses and unions, as well as from the Town Hall of San Javier who are unlikely to be ecstatic at the prospect of losing the indirect jobs which support an airport infrastructure and services.

Taxi drivers are very likely to stage some sort of protest, and as the wise wives of the north say, "there´s many a slip twixt cup and lip."

More to follow.....

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