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Corvera Airport set to pass one million passengers again in 2026
Passenger numbers are up 9% so far this year as Murcia’s airport adds new international routes and continues its recovery
Corvera Airport is on course to pass the one million passenger mark for just the second time ever as traffic continues to recover and new international routes bring more travellers through the Murcia airport.
A total of 575,000 passengers used Corvera between January and July, an increase of 9% compared with the same period last year. The number of take-offs and landings also rose by 16% during the first seven months of the year.
If the current pace continues, Aena expects the airport to welcome more than one million passengers by the end of December. Last year, Corvera came close to the milestone with 947,438 passengers.
Passing one million would be significant for the airport, which first reached the figure in its opening year in 2019. It would also raise questions over a concession fee that Aena can be required to pay to the Region of Murcia.
The original agreement provided for a payment to the regional government when passenger numbers passed one million. In 2019, the first year of operation, the payment amounted to €840,000, based on €0.84 for each passenger seat.
The situation changed after the Covid pandemic, however, and the terms of the concession were revised in 2021. The operating fee was linked to the recovery in passenger traffic and the minimum guaranteed payment was suspended until pre-pandemic conditions return.
There are also outstanding compensation payments connected to the financial imbalance caused by the pandemic, meaning it’s not yet clear whether passing one million passengers this year would automatically result in a payment to the regional government.
The airport’s recovery is nevertheless gathering pace. International flights account for around 88% of Corvera’s traffic, with 20 destinations available during the summer season.
Among the newer routes are Venice, Lille and Marseille, operated in partnership with Volotea. Domestic services currently connect Murcia with Tenerife North, Asturias, Barcelona, Bilbao and Gran Canaria.
Despite the improvement, Corvera remains some way from its original ambitions. The airport hasn’t yet reached three million passengers a year and is still below the 1.27 million passengers handled by San Javier Airport in its final year of civilian operations.
Corvera also remains tiny compared with nearby Alicante Airport, which handled 12.1 million passengers between January and July, around 21 times as many as Corvera. Alicante is also preparing for a major expansion, with an investment of around €1 billion planned as part of the latest airport infrastructure programme.
For now, though, Corvera is heading towards an important milestone of its own, with Aena confident that the one million passenger figure can be reached again before the end of 2026.
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