Murcia–San Javier Airport is a military airport and former civilian passenger

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

located in San Javier, southeast of

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

, Spain. It is owned by the

Spanish Air and Space Force The Spanish Air and Space Force () is the Aerial warfare, aerial and space warfare branch of the Spanish Armed Forces. History Early stages Hot air balloons have been used with military purposes in Spain as far back as 1896. In 1905, with th ...

. It was replaced (after several delays) by the new Región de Murcia International Airport, when it opened on 15 January 2019.

Overview

Operations

The airport can handle aircraft up to the size of a

Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the trijet Boeing 727, 727, received its first orders in August 1978. The ...

. It has Category 5 fire cover by the

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, and also has one ambulance available. The military air base dates back to at least the early 1930s and is located at the northern end of the airport. It is used chiefly by

turboprop, piston and jet-engined training aircraft of the Academia General del Aire (the Spanish Air Force College), including the aerobatic demonstration team of the Spanish Air and Space Force Patrulla Águila which can often be seen practicing over the nearby Mar Menor. In recent years, Murcia Airport became much busier thanks to the arrival of several low-cost airlines. According to Aena, passenger numbers jumped from 88,608 in 1995 to 1,181,490 passengers in 2012.

Replacement

The airport invested in a new €60 million runway and terminal buildings around 2004 to 2011 In November 2011, the Minister of Public Works Antonio Sevilla, and Secretary of State for Transport Isaías Táboas, signed an official agreement that effectively proposed to close the airport to civilian air traffic from 2012. In November 2017, the Spanish government said it would be awarding AENA the contract of managing Corvera Airport - whereby San Javier would be closed and flights transferred. In April 2018, it was confirmed that the new Región de Murcia International Airport, which is situated in closer proximity to the city of Murcia, would open in January 2019. San Javier closed on 14 January 2019 and all airlines transferred their services to the new airport the following day. The final flight to operate at San Javier was

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish Low-cost carrier#Ultra low-cost carrier, ultra low-cost airline group headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. The parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, includes subsidiaries Ryanair , Malta Air, Buzz (Ryanair), Buzz ...

flight FR4117 to

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Airlines and destinations

All operations transferred to Región de Murcia International Airport on 14 January 2019. Prior to this it was mostly used by leisure and low-cost carriers such as Jet2.com and

Statistics

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murcia-San Javier Airport Defunct airports in Spain Airports in the Region of Murcia San Javier, Murcia Airports disestablished in 2018