Our nearest airport is San Javier Airport, Murcia its only 25 minutes away and Ryanair has a route from Liverpool (our UK base). It is a really nice smallish airport with no hassles. However, from November it will no longer exist. Not because of lack of passengers but for a spat between Ryanair and the Murcia Airport Authorities.
The airline is furious at the airports inflexibility and its handing €3 million to the small regional airline Air Nostrum, which mainly operates domestic flights from Madrid. Ryanair sees the grant as throwing good money after bad. Air Nostrum’s traffic, despite the massive cash injection, has seen its traffic decline by 23% during the last year.
Ryanair points out that their airline carries 49% of all UK traffic to Murcia. It operates 76 San Javier flights bringing 120,000 tourists each week during the winter months when local businesses are desperately trying to stay afloat.
After several months of meetings the Murcia authorities have been unresponsive. The airline feels its only option is to switch its carriers to more responsive regions such as rival Alicante with which it has reached amicable agreement for more slots.
So its off to Alicante, which is an hour away. However, it is not clear if Ryanair will go from Liverpool to Alicante, we know they, like other airlines go from Manchester to Alicante. So it could be an hour to Manchester Airport for us on the other side.
So in one swoop our travel plans have to change and at least a half an hour added to each end plus additional costs for cabs in Spain and trains in the UK.
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