Murcia Airport
Murcia San Javier airport is situated on the north shore of the Mar Menor, in an inner lagoon of 170 kilometres which is perfect for doing all kinds of sports: sailing, golf, climbing, trekking, and so on.
The strategic location of the airport takes you to a Mediterranean culture built on the pillars of different civilisations and settlements that left their mark and influences. Besides, the weather conditions - with an average annual temperature of 19 degrees - are ideal for both winter and summer tourism.
Murcia San Javier is an air base open to civil traffic, as stipulated in Royal Decree 1167/1995 of 7 July on the use of airdromes used jointly as an air base and an airport, and of air bases open to civil traffic. Thus, the airport share runways with the General Air Academy, where future Air Force officials are trained.
Since 1996, San Javier airport has experienced linear growth in passenger traffic and has consequently become a fundamental node with regards holiday and leisure transport to and from the Region of Murcia. During the years 2001, 2002 and 2003, it was one of the domestic airports with the greatest growth; 39%, 44% and 77%, respectively.
Alicante Airport
Alicante Airport is situated in one of the most dynamic areas of the Mediterranean coast, offering great business and economic opportunities.
In recent years new facilities and services have been developed to respond to the demands of the more than six million passengers who use this destination.
In 1996 the airport's passenger terminal was completely remodelled to handle up to 7 million passengers per year. The car park capacity was also increased to cater for a maximum volume of 4,200 passengers at peak time.
The airport has a single runway, with a maximum stated capacity of 30 operations per hour. However, the airfield, equipped with suitable radar procedures, could handle a sustained volume of traffic of up to 40 operations at peak time. This would mean that the present runway would have sufficient capacity to handle the approximately 90,000 aircraft operations per year estimated for 2015.
At present, it ranks seventh in terms of the volume of passenger traffic within the Spanish airport network. In 2003 it passed the 8 million passengers mark, up 16.9 per cent on the 2002 figure, distributed over the 66,577 aircraft movements carried out.
The vital importance of tourism to Alicante Airport is reflected in the percentage of passengers on international flights - eighty per cent of the total. In 2003, of the 8,195,466 total passengers, 6.633.594 travelled on international flights. The United Kingdom, Germany and Holland are the largest providers of passengers.
Despite these figures, domestic scheduled traffic has also increased in recent years, with 1,526,953 passengers recorded for 2003. Madrid, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca are the most popular destinations.