Nottingham,
14
January
2019
|
16:19
Europe/Amsterdam

East Midlands Airport passengers will be the first to land at Spain’s newest airport

Summary

Passengers departing East Midlands Airport (EMA) tomorrow (Tuesday 15 January) on flight FR1824 will be the first to land at Spain’s newest airport.

 

Passengers departing East Midlands Airport (EMA) tomorrow (Tuesday 15 January) on flight FR1824 will be the first to land at Spain’s newest airport.

Corvera Airport or, to give it its full name, the Aeropuerto Internacional Redion de Murcia Juan del la Cierva (Region of Murcia International Airport) will be officially opened tomorrow by the King of Spain (Felipe VI) after the first commercial flight, the Ryanair 06:40 departure from EMA, has landed shortly after 10am (local time).

Built as a replacement for Murcia–San Javier Airport, which was rapidly running out of capacity, construction started in 2008 and the airport was due to open in 2013. However, due to complicated legal and financial reasons, the airport’s opening was delayed.

The new airport can handle 5 million passengers a year, which puts it on par with EMA. During its first year of operation, over 1.2m passengers are expected to use it, 80 per cent of whom will be from the UK.

Murcia is home to the Costa Calida (warm coast) region of Spain and boasts 250km of Mediterranean coastline. The region is considerably less developed than the Costa Blanca to the north, and is characterised by small, picturesque, traditionally Spanish seaside holiday towns.

Although there are large tourist developments such as the La Manga strip, the Costa Calida has retained many areas of natural coastline unspoilt by tourist development. The least developed area is the Calblanque National Park which is located on the south-eastern tip of the region close to La Manga.

Much of the Costa Calida coastline is dominated by the Mar Menor (the small sea), which is the largest area of enclosed sea in Europe. The protected location of the Mar Menor results in warm water temperatures making it ideal for swimming, sailing, windsurfing and other water sports.

The Murcia region of Spain is served by three Ryanair flights a week from East Midlands Airport.