Edition 56
www.thecourier.es
Friday, March 16, 2012
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NO FLY ZONE By AMANDA BLACK and SALLY BENGTSSON CORVERA Airport’s opening is facing a new delay - but officials insist it WON’T become another of Spain’s ghost terminals.
The opening of the beleaguered multimillion euro facility has again been put back, igniting fears that it will become just one more symbol of the reckless public spending that has left Spain crippled by debt. Despite an official opening date of July, officials have now admitted that departure boards are likely to remain blank at least until the autumn, with the latest delay being blamed on the change of government. But as the airport continues to wait for permits and licences, there are rumours of other problems – including cracks in the building due to land moveinauguration a year ago, and ment and disagreements Ciudad Real’s Central airport with airlines. The delays are enough to with its terminal designed to make some nervous that handle 2.5 million passenCorvera will join the ranks of gers eerily empty – and Spain’s ‘ghost airports’ such barely a handful of flights as Castellon, which has not each week. Castellon’s €150 million seen a single plane since its
Fears grow for Corvera as opening is delayed again airport failed to secure an operating licence and last month its runway was declared too narrow by the State Agency for Air Security. Few thought the airport even necessary. It was launched on the promise of
future local theme parks that have yet to materialise – a worryingly familiar story. Ciudad Real’s Central airport was planned as a satellite airport for Madrid, but critics say it was never viable, too far from the capital to
serve any real purpose. Critics of Corvera have asked why Murcia has built a second airport just half an hour from a perfectly good old one at San Javier. After a battle between the two airports, regional and central government struck a deal to close San Javier to commercial passengers and give Corvera, which received millions in public funding, a chance to succeed. Those involved with
Death crash driver and the DVD
THE Swiss death crash bus driver was helping change the disc in the coach's DVD player moments before the horrific smash, it was claimed yesterday (Thursday). Child survivors have reportedly been telling hospital staff the driver — who was killed instantly — was handling a DVD.
According to The Sun, investigators have also been told kids saw teacher Frank van Kerckhove, 40, standing in the aisle putting on the DVD. It comes after a photo emerged of smiling children from a class doomed to terrifying carnage in the ski trip coach crash.
Several of the pupils in the picture are believed to be among 28 youngsters and adults killed in the Swiss Alps tragedy. An unknown number of others were among 24 injured when a bus carrying a school party hit a wall inside a tunnel — thought to be the worst road accident in
Swiss history. Many of the Year 7 children, all aged 11 or 12, were on their way back to schools in two small towns in Belgium when the horror happened on Tuesday night. Of the 52 people aboard, 22 children, two drivers and four
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Corvera insist it will definitely open later this year, with demand from passengers. Once San Javier closes, they say, Corvera will pick up the 1,200,000 travellers who use San Javier annually. And it is argued when the Paramount theme park opens, Corvera will really take off. But the park is a long way off and in these times, nothing is certain. The closure of San Javier and proposed move inland is not popular with passengers, most of whom travel to coastal resorts. Many may find Alicante more convenient than Corvera. This would be good news for Alicante’s controversial new terminal – another expensive half-empty airport building project that many argue should never have seen a brick laid. But it could yet see Corvera joining the ranks of Spain’s ghost airports.