Bnamericas Published: Monday, May 05, 2025 Photovoltaic 43,000+ global companies doing business in the region 102,000+ key contacts related to companies and projects news and interviews about your industry in English and thank you for choosing CamposolToday.com to publicise your organisation’s info or event Camposol Today is a website set up by Murcia Today specifically for residents of the urbanisation in Southwest Murcia providing news and information on what’s happening in the local area which is the largest English-speaking expat area in the Region of Murcia When submitting text to be included on Camposol Today please abide by the following guidelines so we can upload your article as swiftly as possible: Send an email to editor@camposoltoday.com or contact@murciatoday.com Attach the information in a Word Document or Google Doc Also attach a photo to illustrate your article Spanish carrier Volotea has announced the launch of a new international connection from the Region of Murcia Airport introducing direct flights to Marseille starting July 7 The airline will operate two weekly flights between Murcia and the southern French city offering service on Mondays and Thursdays through the summer season This new route marks a significant milestone for the region representing its first-ever direct air link with France Volotea plans to offer approximately 5,000 seats across 32 flights between July and August aiming to boost both outbound travel to Provence and inbound tourism from France to Murcia Volotea has also confirmed the continuation and expansion of its direct service to Barcelona The airline will maintain its current schedule of two weekly flights and has committed to operating the route until at least March 2026 Volotea will offer a total of 216 flights and more than 37,700 seats between Murcia and the Catalan capital These developments are part of Volotea’s broader strategy to enhance regional connectivity within Spain and across Europe In addition to the Marseille and Barcelona routes the airline will continue offering direct flights from Murcia to Bilbao and Asturias providing residents with a growing range of domestic travel options expressed enthusiasm about the new connection with France: “We are very pleased to offer the people of Murcia their first direct link with France Marseille is a key destination in the south of the country and we believe this route will inspire travelers from Murcia to discover the beauty of the Provence region it opens a new door for French tourists to explore the Region of Murcia contributing to the area’s economic and social development.” Schmilovich also emphasized the strong performance of the Barcelona route since its inception: “The connection between Catalonia and the Region of Murcia is strong the Barcelona route has exceeded expectations especially by facilitating visits between families and friends.” Regional authorities have welcomed the news the Regional Minister of Tourism for the Region of Murcia highlighted the strategic importance of this development: “France is one of our most important source markets Establishing a direct air link with this country is a key milestone for both our airport and our tourism strategy We thank Volotea for its confidence and commitment to our region This route not only strengthens international connectivity but also expands our ability to attract high-value visitors from France.” The Region of Murcia Airport has played a vital role in 2024 not only by expanding commercial connectivity but also by stepping up in humanitarian efforts—it has recorded the highest number of extended operating hours in Spain this year to facilitate organ transport operations With the introduction of the Murcia–Marseille route and the continuation of strategic connections to major Spanish cities Volotea is reinforcing its position as a key player in the growth of low cost regional air travel and tourism Log in to leave a comment © 2021 The Leader Digital Metrics details Asturias is one of the communities with the highest rates of hospital admission for asthma in Spain The environmental pollution or people lifestyle are some of the factors that contribute to the appearance or aggravation of this illness The aim of this study was to show the spatial distribution of asthma admissions risks in the central municipalities of Asturias and to analyze the observed spatial patterns Urgent hospital admissions for asthma and status asthmaticus occurred between 2016 to 2018 on the public hospitals of the central area of Asturias were used Population data were assigned in 5 age groups smoothed relative risk (SRR) and posterior risk probability (PP) were calculated for each census tract (CT) a spatial autocorrelation index (Morans I) was calculated and a cluster and outlier analysis (Anselin Local Morans I) was finally performed in order to analyze spatial clusters The total number of hospital urgent asthma admissions during the study period was 2324 The municipalities with the highest values of SRR and PP were located on the northwest area: Avilés A high risk cluster was found for the municipalities of Avilés The spatial analysis showed high risk of hospitalization for asthma on the municipalities of the northwest area of the study which highlight the existence of spatial inequalities on the distribution of urgent hospital admissions The present study used GIS tools to determine the distribution of asthma in the municipalities of the central area of Asturias which is an area with a high population density and with important industrial sections It was also intended to detect areas with greater incidence of this disease and generate possible hypotheses that could explain the distributions observed and corresponded to unscheduled (urgent) hospital admissions for J-45 (asthma) and J-46 (status asthmaticus) according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) The Health Service of the Asturias Government responsible of the management of the MBDS database approved the use of the database according to the Collaboration Agreement SV-PA-19–03 All records were hospital admissions (hospital stays) the MBDS database does not include emergency care that does not require hospitalization The records corresponding to the 2016–2018 period were selected and grouped into a single disease The data used corresponded to the four hospitals located in the centre of Asturias in Avilés; Cabueñes University Hospital; Jove Hospital in Gijón; and Central University Hospital of Asturias which were the reference hospitals for the population included in this study The basic geographic unit used for the present study was the CT that corresponded to the smallest administrative unit that had information The cartography used was that of 2016 provided by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics The cartographic files used for the geocoding process were those provided by the municipalities of Oviedo and Avilés of specific doorway which cover both urban and rural areas; the data from the CartoCIUDAD project of the National Geographic Institute was used for the other municipalities It has a good doorway coverage on urban areas but limited on rural areas It was also used the National Topographic Database BTN100 obtained from the National Geographic Institute to cover rural areas The ArcGIS software was used for geocoding addresses in order to locate the residence addresses corresponding to each hospital admission We create an Address locator as Single House type and a Multiple address locator based on villages and small towns for rural areas that had poor single house coverage The geocoded records were linked to the CT by a spatial join and grouped by sex and age group The SRR values are expressed in points by 100 or posterior probability that the SRR was greater than 100 PP values above 0.8 indicated statistically significant excess of hospitalisations These calculations were made using the Stata v14 and R version 3.6.1 programmes A spatial trend analysis was performed using the ArcGIS 10.4 geostatistical analysis tool The trend analysis was performed in order to identify if there was any pattern on a specific direction of the map this analysis provides a three-dimensional perspective of the data It was performed as a second-order polynomials and plotted on south-north/ west–east directions Pearson’s correlation coefficient measures the strength of a linear association between two variables and was added to the plots as ‘r’ value the Moran’s Index and the local indicator of spatial association (LISA) were used for the analysis of spatial clusters Moran’s Index measures the spatial autocorrelation between the smoothed relative risks throughout the study area and contrast the hypothesis of absence of global spatial autocorrelation versus the existence of spatial autocorrelation The calculation of LISA let us detect if there is a possible spatial autocorrelation in a certain subset of spatial units If it is statistically significant and positive it confirms the presence of a cluster of similar values around the spatial unit there will be a cluster of different values around the corresponding spatial unit (spatial outliers) Local Moran’s I analysis was performed under “Contiguity edge corners” as spatial relationship matrix which is the most appropriate focus and provided the most understandable results for the study area This approach means that polygons that share an edge or a corner will be included in computations for the target polygon they are considered neighbours and will be included in each other's computations The tools used to that end were ArcGIS Spatial Autocorrelation (Moran’s I) and Cluster and Outlier Analysis (Anselin local Moran’s I) 1: Castrillón; 2: Avilés; 3: Gozón; 4: Carreño; 5: Gijón; 6: Illas; 7: Corvera de Asturias; 8: Llanera; 9: Siero; 10: Noreña; and 11: Oviedo The assessment of the smallest CT corresponding to the three largest urban areas of the region (Gijón [B] Oviedo [C] and Avilés [A]) indicated a clear pattern of high values in Avilés (above 150 in the great majority of CT for both sexes) and low values in Oviedo (below 65 in the vast majority of CT great heterogeneity was observed in the distribution of the SRR values in the CT There seemed to be a predominance of CT with high values (above 110) only in the case of men A) Women; b) Men; r: Pearson's correlation coefficient; * statistically significant  At a global level, a positive, moderate and statistically significant spatial autocorrelation was observed in the study area (Table 2) This result indicates the existence of similar risks of hospital admission for asthma in neighbouring geographic units The distributions of high SRR values in the northern zone, and low in the southern zone were associated with the cluster of CT that exhibited high and low values, respectively, both being statistically significant (Fig. 5). Spatial clusters—Anselin local Moran’s I (LISA) 1: Castrillón; 2: Aviles; 3: Gozón; 4: Carreño; 5: Gijón; 6: Illas; 7: Corvera de Asturias; 8: Llanera; 9: Siero; 10: Noreña; and 11: Oviedo there was also a cluster of high values in the western area of Gijón (5) and in some CT of the Municipality of Carreño (4) although the CT of the western area of Gijón (5) exhibited high SRR values they hardly exhibited statistically significant clusters The low SRR values (< 65) observed in the Municipality of Oviedo (11) indicated a statistically significant spatial clustering There was also an area in the east of the Municipality of Siero (9) that exhibited a cluster of CT with low SRR values and was statistically significant (< 65) only in the case of men Regarding the urban areas of the municipalities there was a cluster with statistically significant high values (above 150 in most of the CT) in the urban nucleus of Avilés (A) excluding the CT located near the city centre that did not exhibit statistically significant clustering The urban centre of Oviedo (C) had a statistically significant cluster of CT with low SRR values (< 65) for men there was great heterogeneity in the SRR values in the case of women; therefore although there was also a significant heterogeneity and the cluster analysis indicated some CT with statistically significant high values (> = 150) The cumulative incidence of unscheduled hospital admissions for asthma from 2016 to 2018 was 0.33% for the total population of the central area this incidence being higher in women (0.4%) than in men (0.25%) The spatial distribution of these admissions in the central area of Asturias indicated a clear north–south pattern with the highest values and the highest risk in the northern municipalities (Avilés This result was corroborated by the subsequent cluster analysis which revealed the existence of CT clusters with high risk values Improving the epidemiological surveillance system for air quality in the region could help to reduce the intraregional heterogeneity detected The CTs on our study that present a higher incidence are coastal areas with high relative humidity and warm temperatures that could be influencing admissions due to asthma One of the main limitations of the present study was that due to the lack of studies addressing the association with pollutants and the diversity of factors that affect the onset of the disease only the distribution of hospital admissions due to asthma in the central area of Asturias could be assessed this distribution could not be attributed to a specific cause but to many different ones that act together It should also be taken into account that the addresses considered in the study might not be the place where those individuals spent most of their time A cluster of CT with high risk of hospital admissions due to asthma was observed in the north-western part of the study area This finding highlights the existence of spatial inequalities in health possibly indicating different environmental exposures It also draws attention to the need of conducting further in-depth studies in these areas in order to know the cause of this high incidence of hospital admissions and perform actions to control these factors thus improving the epidemiological condition in the municipalities assessed The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy issues given the small size of the units of study but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request Asturian Society for Economic and Industrial Studies Global Initiative for Asthma. Global strategy for asthma management and prevention. 2021. https://www.ginasthma.org and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 Global asthma prevalence in adults : findings from the cross-sectional world health survey Using GIS for Disease Mapping and Clustering in Jeddah Evolución de la prevalencia de asma y factores sociodemográficos y de salud asociados en población de 18 a 64 años de la Comunidad de Madrid (1996–2013) Contaminación atmosférica urbana e ingresos hospitalarios por asma y enfermedades respiratorias agudas en la ciudad de Murcia (España) Evolución de las hospitalizaciones potencialmente evitables por condiciones crónicas en España [Trend in potentially avoidable hospitalisations for chronic conditions in Spain] Epidemiology of asthma in children and adults Asthma and cigarette smoking: A review of the empirical literature Prenatal and passive smoke exposure and incidence of asthma and wheeze: Systematic review and meta-analysis Outdoor pollen is a trigger of child and adolescent asthma emergency department presentations: a systematic review and meta-analysis and incident asthma: A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies Diagnosis and management of work-related asthma: American College Of Chest Physicians Consensus Statement Romaszko-Wojtowicz A, Cymes I, Dragańska E, Doboszyńska A, Romaszko J, Glińska-Lewczuk K. Relationship between biometeorological factors and the number of hospitalizations due to asthma. Sci Rep. 2020;10:9593. https://doi.org/10.1038/S41598-020-66746-8 Effects of meteorological factors on hospitalizations in adult patients with asthma: a systematic review A multifactorial evaluation of the effects of air pollution and meteorological factors on asthma exacerbation Effect of outdoor air pollution on asthma exacerbations in children and adults: systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis Impact of air pollution on hospital admissions with a focus on respiratory diseases: a time-series multi-city analysis Environmental and health impacts of air pollution: a review Exposure to outdoor air pollution during trimesters of pregnancy and childhood asthma Air pollutants and early origins of respiratory diseases Association between Air pollutants and asthma emergency room visits and hospital admissions in time series studies: a systematic review and meta-Analysis Estimates of the global burden of ambient PM2:5 and NO2 on asthma incidence and emergency room visits Progression from asthma to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is air pollution a risk factor Trends and regional distribution of outpatient claims for asthma Applications of Geographical Information Systems in understanding spatial distribution of asthma Asthma-prone areas modeling using a machine learning model Ministerio de Sanidad Servicios Sociales e Igualdad. Real Decreto 69/2015, de 6 de febrero, por el que se regula el Registro de Actividad de Atención Sanitaria Especializada. 2015. https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2015-1235 Besag J, York J, Mollié A. Bayesian image restoration, with two applications in spatial statistics. Ann Inst Stat Math. 1991;43:1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00116466 Lindgren F, Rue H. Bayesian Spatial Modelling with R-INLA. JSS J Stat Softw. 2015;63. http://www.jstatsoft.org/ Genetic and observational evidence supports a causal role of sex hormones on the development of asthma Socioeconomic status and exposure to outdoor NO2 and benzene in the Asturias INMA birth cohort López-Cima M, García-Pérez J, Pérez-Gómez B, Aragonés N, López-Abente G, Tardón A, et al. Lung cancer risk and pollution in an industrial region of Northern Spain: a hospital-based case-control study. Int J Health Geogr. 2011;10:10. https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-072X-10-10 Exploring associations between multipollutant day types and asthma morbidity: Epidemiologic applications of self-organizing map ambient air quality classifications Exposure to ultrafine particles and respiratory hospitalisations in five European cities Systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between ambient nitrogen dioxide and respiratory disease in China Spatial distribution of hospitalizations for ischemic heart diseases in the central region of asturias Multiobjective grammar-based genetic programming applied to the study of asthma and allergy epidemiology Oviedo: Observatorio de la Salud en Asturias - Consejería de Sanidad del Principado de Asturias Download references We thank Proof-Reading-Service (http://www.proof-reading-service.com) for editing a draft of this manuscript This research was funded by Subvención nominativa del Principado de Asturias—Salud y Medio Ambiente (SV-PA-19–03) Instituto de Salud Carlos III ISCIII-FEDER (PI18/01313) IUOPA-Área de Medicina Preventiva Y Salud Pública Isabel Martínez-Pérez & Ana Fernández-Somoano CIBER Epidemiología Y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Principado de Asturias (ISPA) All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki responsible of the management of the RAE-CMBD database The study used anonymized data from RAE-CMBD database The identity of human subjects cannot be ascertained directly or through identifiers linked to the subjects The investigators did not contact the subjects and did not reidentify subjects Since it is a retrospective ecological study and it does not include experiments on humans and/or use of human tissue samples A waiver to consent to participate was granted by the Health Service of the Asturias Government The publication of the study results was approved by the Health Service of the Asturias Government according to the Collaboration Agreement SV-PA-19–03 The authors declare no competing interests Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15731-7 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Asturian and Galician pipers will invade Gran Vía to celebrate the III Irish Week in Madrid the parade will be on March 15 and will have more participants than ever Madrid will be dyed green in honor of Ireland during the St there will be all kinds of activities with references to Celtic culture including a parade that will take 600 pipers from Gran Vía to Plaza de España In the third Madrid edition of Ireland Week the organizers want to get the participation of a thousand people and put the capital’s parade in the international spotlight under the direction of the musician Bras Rodrigo who will arrive with the Banda de Gaites de Corvera (Asturias) Patrick’s Day parade in New York for 12 years He has made the best Galician and Asturian pipe bands travel all over the world (Germany Stage 20: Corvera de Asturias - Alto de l'Angliru A second short mountain stage ending on the feared slopes of the ridiculous Angliru They'll tackle 'El Infierno' from La Vega; the 12.6km climb is brutal At its upper reaches there are sections upwards of 22 per cent and 20 per cent respectively On three occasions the winner here has won outright The 2017 WorldTour men’s season was jampacked with memorable moments The top level of men’s road cycling in the road delivered drama excitement and some very unexpected racing Here are the top moments captured through the lens of Sirotti from the 2017 season: A very dramatic edition of Milan-San Remo was punctuated by an extremely powerful attack by Peter Sagan Only Michael Kwiatkowski and Julian Alaphilippe could follow Sagan did most of the work to hold the gap to the line and was narrowly beaten in the sprint by Kwiatkowski The Finish line photo showed how much the riders put into the effort Philippe Gilbert made the 2017 edition of the Tour of Flanders memorable the Belgium champion rode solo to the line He dismounted to celebrate the big victory It looked inevitable that Greg Van Avermaet would eventually win a Monument after winning gold in the road race at the Olympics he won the next week on the rough cobbles of France It would be easy to forget how amazing Alessandro Valverde’s early season was before he suffered a season-ending injury in the opening time trial at the Tour de France His fifth win and fourth consecutive at La Fleche Wallone was all but inevitable but never-the-less showed the 37-year-old’s dominance in steep finishes Tom Dumoulin chases the lead group on the Umbrailpass during Stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia after an unexpected nature break at the base of the climb in Switzerland Dumoulin rode strong to limit his losses which he then easily made up to win ahead of Nairo Quintana on the final stages individual time trial in Milan Rigoberto Uran suffered a mechanical in the heat of the final climb He shifted into the big ring where he was stuck for the remainder of the stage He churned the big gear on the climb and then stayed with the lead group in the leadup to the finish He then very narrowly outsprinted Warren Barguil for the win the record shows that Chris Froome won two monuments in 2017 After winning his fourth Tour de France he won the Vuelta a Espana ahead of Vincenzo Nibali to complete the historic double That record may not stand with his adverse analytical doping control he returned on Stage 16 though The Angliru was Alberto Contador’s last shot at a stage in at his home Grand Tour in his final race as a professional He delivered with a dramatic win on the famed and feared climb Tom Dumoulin finished the season by capturing his first career rainbow jersey in the individual time trial in Bergen His Giant-Sunweb team also won the team time trial Peter Sagan sprinted to his third consecutive rainbow jersey in Bergen While many expected the defending world champion to show his hand earlier he was nearly invisible until the final meters of the race He outsprinted home favourite Alesandro Kristoff by a bike throw Get the digital edition of Canadian Cycling Magazine Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" MADRID – Chris Froome virtually secured overall victory in the Vuelta a Espana on Saturday by extending his lead over Vincenzo Nibali as Alberto Contador won the 20th queen stage in his final race before retirement Barring disaster in Sunday’s parade around the centre of Madrid who now holds a lead of 2min 15secs over Nibali will become just the third rider in history to win the Tour de France and Vuelta in the same year Home favourite Contador sealed a dream send-off by claiming the first stage win of the race by a Spaniard in a time of 3hr 31min 33sec for the 117.5km from Corvera de Asturias to Alto de l’Angliru claimed his sixth career Vuelta stage victory as he distanced the race leaders at the start of the brutal climb up Angliru “This morning I was clear that this was my day “There has been no better moment or place than this to say goodbye.” he just missed out on climbing onto the podium as he moved up to fourth overall Russia’s Ilnur Zakarin leapfrogged Dutch rider Wilco Kelderman into third Froome was again well protected by his Sky team in the chasing group behind before attacking himself two kilometres from the finish line to take third on the stage behind teammate Wout Poels “That was such a tough climb,” added Froome who also shed a tear as he was embraced by his team at the finish line “We did everything to try and catch Alberto “Congratulations to him because to finish his career like this is beautiful.” With the fifth Grand Tour win of his career Froome will join Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil (1963) and Bernard Hinault (1978) as the only riders to win the Tour and Vuelta in the same year But the Briton is the first man to win both races since the Vuelta was moved to after the Tour in the racing calendar in 1995 Froome has finished runner-up at the Vuelta on three occasions in 2011 But that wait has made the final reward all the sweeter after a gruelling three-week slog he described as the hardest race of his career “I have to say it’s probably the toughest Grand Tour I’ve ridden this year’s Vuelta,” added Froome It’s just such a big relief to have now got to this point and I’m looking forward to getting to Madrid tomorrow “I’ve been trying for years and I’ve been second three times so to win the Vuelta now is incredible.” Nibali’s hopes of launching a challenge for the leader’s red jersey were undermined by a minor crash on a sharp descent before the climb to Angliru began as the Italian finished 34 seconds behind Froome in sixth “You have to acknowledge that the Vuelta is extremely hard and my legs were heavy by this stage of the Vuelta,” admitted Nibali I couldn’t follow the pace of my rivals “On a stage where I fell on the descent from Cordal which meant I lost contact with the best riders fortunately I didn’t lose the podium.” – Nampa-AFP copyright in the content of this website vest in The Free Press of Namibia (Proprietary) Limited (Registration No 85/058) The unauthorized making of copies or use of this material constitutes a copyright infringment under the Namibian Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Protection Act Powered by PageSuite © 2025 The Namibian This site asks for consent to use your data We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below The cookies that are categorized as 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analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns long haul to reach this point and although García-Legaz was unable to give a firm opening date he maintains that the airport will be ready to begin operations during December and that flights will begin immediately after the staff and services from San Javier transfer to the new installations There has been copious comment on social media over the weekend about the subject and a number of comments indicating lack of clarity about the sequence of events which will now occur and the rough time-table for a future opening The only factor which cannot be changed is that for some people this will mean a longer drive to the airport He stated quite clearly that the airport would be fully operational by December but was unable to commit to an opening date depended on the airlines operating through the airport Given the fact that most commercial flight slots are allocated several months in advance and the AIRM wil be unable to apply for listing within this schedule until it has all of its necessary licences it is likely that flights will be scheduled to follow the seasonal schedules of the airlines operating in the airport and are likely to begin fully in the spring of 2018 although this is SUPPOSITION and no absolute firm date was given Images: Copyright Murcia Today taken on 24th February To keep in touch with the latest developments either follow Murcia Today on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MurciaToday/) or sign up for the free news round-up sent weekly by email to those who request it. Click to receive the weekly Murcian and Spanish news bulletin. The idea of a new airport in the Region of Murcia first began to be taken seriously in the early years of the new millennium when the number of passengers using Murcia-San Javier began to rise sharply (by 2007 the figure had topped 2 million before falling to only half that number by 2014 and then beginning a gradual recovery) there was initially little enthusiasm for the project on the part of the national government with heavy investment having been made into increasing the capacity of Alicante-Elche and it was not until 2008 that construction of the infrastructure in Corvera began At that point the construction and management contracts had been awarded to a privately owned consortium called Aeromur the major part of which was owned by construction giant Sacyr there was to be a station at the airport on a new AVE high-speed rail line between Murcia and Cartagena Murcia-San Javier was to remain open in competition with Corvera and the forecast date for the first flights was some time in 2011 A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then with almost everything apparently in place at last for the opening of the Region of Murcia Airport on 15th January 2019 it is appropriate to look back over the twists and turns in what has at times seemed like an interminable saga of setbacks with the realistic prospect of being able to say by the summer of 2019 that they will all be in the past What follows is a summary of the developments at the airport which have been reported on in Murcia Today since 2009 with links to some of them to enable readers to reminisce about what was being predicted suggested and ruled out at various stages over the last decade As the year began, with construction work continuing apace, there were still optimistic statements implying that the airport could open before the end of 2011, and the first stone on the access roads was laid in the last week of January which was confirmed by Aeromur on 30th January was already running into potential problems as regional opposition politicians began to question whether it was not in breach of EU laws and whether word might come from Brussels that the guarantee provided by the government constituted unfair aid to private enterprise passenger numbers at San Javier began to fall raising questions over the viability of two airports in such close proximity By May there was good progress on the access roads but still no news from Brussels about the loan, and doubts hung in the air despite the project being given an award for its innovation and sustainability By June, there was news that the EU was not likely to object to the loan and the heated debate over whether it was feasible for two airports to compete in Murcia continued Chinese delegates inspected the facility in July but by October there were doubts over the AVE high-speed rail link which was expected to reach the city of Murcia by 2014 and Cartagena 3 years later and the prospect of an underground station in Corvera was said to be contemplated only if Aeromur paid for it Nonetheless, the year ended with the signing of an agreement between the regional and national governments to build the AVE link This had first been mooted by Ramón Luis Valcárcel in March, almost immediately after the opening of a second runway in San Javier the State-owned management company of Spain’s airports Aena had been excluded from the running of Corvera and battle was joined as the regional government anticipated a huge increase in tourism once the new airport opened By the end of the year Jet2 had confirmed that they would be flying to Corvera although the airline recommended waiting for the transfer until after summer 2012 (!) and a formal agreement for the transfer of civilian flights away from San Javier had been signed Progress continued at the terminal building with the electricity supply being connected and a new airport director appointed, and even in January 2012 Antonio Sevilla, the minister for Public Works in the regional government, forecasted that the first planes would be landing and taking off in June or July The airport was included in a draft document for the Mediterranean Corridor rail link and staff training contracts were put out to tender in March There were worries that the flight paths could be incompatible with the use of air space by the military and meanwhile Aena made it clear that there was little intention of closing down San Javier as a new duty free shop was announced there The year began with optimism that the airport in Corvera could open at last, but damning criticism in the national press raised scepticism and by April rumours had begun began to circulate that Aeromur was experiencing difficulties in paying back the 200-million-euro loan These rumours quickly proved to be correct and suddenly the regional government was at loggerheads with the management company refusing to provide another bailout and initiating procedures to rescind the management contract This signalled the start of a long series of appeals by Aeromur against the rescission and an adjustment of the regional budget to take the 200-million-euro loan interest payments into account summer flight schedules had been confirmed at Murcia-San Javier for another year but the regional government continued with the bureaucratic processes required to open the airport and obtain all the necessary licences no mention was made of when that might happen… labelling it “San Javier” instead while at the “real” San Javier passenger numbers were now 82 per cent lower than in 2007 Aeromur joined Aena in seeking compensation, this time for the rescission of the management contract, and the campaign to “save” Murcia-San Javier gained momentum as opponents of Corvera saw that the future of the new infrastructure was hanging in the balance But by the end of September 2015 a full inventory had been completed at the airport and preparations made to adjudicate a contract for a revised business plan to be drawn up At the same time a regional parliamentary committee was formed to investigate the accusations of mismanagement of the whole project and then the feeling that a new sense of purpose had emerged was underlined by the announcement that Aeromur’s first appeal had been rejected by the courts The new business plan for Corvera was necessary as a preliminary to the second management contract, and at this stage it was reported that Aena was one of seven companies to have expressed an interest in bidding for that contract As 2016 began there were few people even daring to guess an opening date at Corvera, and the intriguing prospect emerged that Sacyr, the majority shareholder in Aeromur, could bid for the second management contract and the possibility was soon forgotten as the courts continued to rule in favour of the regional government By now the legal situation was so complex that the parliamentary committee could not even enter the terminal building to see it for themselves, but by May those interested in bidding for the new contract were able to do so It was confirmed by national government Minister Ana Pastor that Aena would be among them and as the courts continued to rule again and again in favour of the Murcia government and against Aeromur the progress remained steady if slow Yet another new Murcia government minister, Pedro Rivera, was appointed in June and it soon transpired that another short delay in the tender process was expected, but even after the courts finally ruled that Aeromur was obliged to pay back 182 million euros there was still heated opposition in many quarters to the closure of San Javier the one condition which all bidders for the contract would be demanding but which only Aena could guarantee Some with a shrewd assessment of the situation were by now beginning to suspect that at this point the contract was likely to be awarded to Aena or to non-one Aena continued to stick to its guns and refuse to guarantee the closure of San Javier to passenger flights but real progress towards opening Corvera was made at long last in March when it was announced that the new management contract was ready to be put out to tender The airport website was re-launched (although it contained little information) and by 3rd May it was confirmed that three bids had been received and were to be evaluated in theory made it possible for the airport to be up and running by the end of 2018 2018 was an unprecedented year in the long saga regarding the new airport in Corvera as despite Aeromur’s insistence on fighting and losing more court battles progress towards the opening of the facility has been constant and steady Throughout the year contracts have been awarded for various services from security and control tower operation to falconry patrols and re-painting runway markings and everything was on schedule for the transfer of flights from San Javier on 15th January 2019 and three months later Aeromur finally went into liquidation ending a saga which had lasted over a decade.  There are still many issues to be resolved among them the details of the business park which is to be created alongside the level of bus services to and from the airport (the rail link proposals vanished years ago) and the number of flights taking off and landing at Corvera over the next few years leading politicians and analysts in Murcia reached the conclusion that the creation of a new airport nearer to the regional capital was one of the key projects which would drive forward the economy and particularly the tourist sector in the future the Marina de Cope development and the macro-container port at El Gorguel have stalled while the arrival of the AVE high-speed rail network has suffered considerable delays but in the case of the Region of Murcia International Airport we are about to start finding out whether they were right