Corvera airport had another negative month in May, as it showed a decrease of 18,706 passengers compared to the activity of the San Javier airport in the same period last year. The loss is similar to that experienced in April, when there were 20,000 fewer travellers. However a spokesman for the new airport, which opened in mid-January, said that they expect to recover this year’s traffic ratios during the summer, following the addition of several new routes and a greater number of flights.

Operator Aena reported that Murcia airport is among the seven airports that have lost travellers during the period January to May while 39 others in the national network have increased their activity, including Alicante, which has grown by 8.2% in the period, reaching 5.3 million passengers.

Figures released for the first five months of Corvera’s operation show that it has lost 69,000 passengers during the period. It had 353,304 users, compared to 422,358 last year in San Javier.

In May there were 121,069 travellers, down from the 139,775 last year. There were also a hundred fewer flights.

In comparison, the Alicante terminal, Corvera’s main competitor, has increased its passenger throughput by 8% so far this year.

At the national level, airports belonging to the Aena network registered more than 100.6 million passengers up to May, which represents an increase of 5.6% compared to the same period of 2018, with an increase of 5.2% in the number of operations, a total of 899,389 flights.

In May, Spanish airports registered more than 24.6 million passengers, an increase of 3.4%, with a total of 213,900 aircraft movements, 3% more than last year.

Alicante airport, along with Valencia, are the two airports that grew the most of all the large Spanish airports. They are followed by Madrid-Barajas, Málaga Tenerife and Barcelona.

Of the total of travellers during May, more than 17 million passengers took international flights, 2.7% more than in the same month of 2018, while 7.33 million travelled domestically, 5.3% more .