Murcia Airport (San Javier) will soon have a second runway, which will allow morning
flights (at the moment the military use the runway in the morning). According to
La Verdad (July 04), morning flights will start up even before the runway is
ready. There is also a new international airport planned nearer to Murcia city,
but my understanding is that San Javier will continue to operate. For flights to
the coast, Mar Menor and La Manga, San Javier will be more convenient anyway.
If you're looking for a cheap flight (to anywhere, from UK), I recommend having a look
at
Flights to Malaga. This has the great advantage of simultaneously
searching a large number of airlines, both scheduled (incl. low cost) and
chartered, and it covers the other big agencies such as Opodo, Lastminute.com etc. You get directed through to the website of the chosen
operator, so you can feel secure. For trips to the Costa Blanca/Calida: I used it on my last trip and
it worked very well - separate checks confirmed that nothing had been missed.
And when I used it for a a recent trip to Madrid, it even turned up BA
flights which I couldn't find on the BA website (which were genuine as I used
one). I will certainly use this from now on. It does not however do one-way
flights emanating from Spain.
Note; the rest of this page is out of date.
Ryan Air are now flying from Prestwick
(from 1 March 2005), Liverpool (31 March), Luton (12 Jan 05) to Murcia from 2005. Warning: they have a strict hold baggage weight limit (normally of 15 kg per
person but check your details) which they enforce; you will be charged excess if you exceed this (I think at 7€ a kilo). I
fell foul of this last time I travelled with them (this may have changed
recently with the new security restrictions).
Easyjet start flying to Murcia from Bristol starting 7
July 2005.
Globespan are flying from Glasgow
to Alicante and also from Edinburgh. Prices
can be very low. My impression
from both is that even when they are close to being full prices do not rise that
much, unlike other no frills airlines.
On the BA website (www.ba.com) you can now book return flights to Murcia,
emanating from London (or from Murcia). There are also singles, but they
typically look expensive relative to returns.
Air2000 (flights to Alicante from
Gatwick/Manchester) was renamed First Choice
Airways from end March 2004.
For charter flights I have used
Thomson Flights (Britannia) a few times (good for kids and you can order a
meal for £5/£2.50 (kids)); Thomson is also good for single charter flights from
Spain, which otherwise seem difficult to find. I also used
Thomas Cook
-- but it doesn't allow searches for singles emanating from Spain, and I have
found that it tends to spew up lots of expensive flights. Flightsavers is another useful travel link for flights emanating from UK. For one-way charter flights originating in Spain you may have to book via a
Spanish agent. Try air2000 on 965868152
, 9am-7pm 7 days a week, for First Choice, Falcon, Unijet; or Airtours on 800
400 800/971 900 100; or Britannia/Thomson on 902 282 838 (9am-9pm weekdays,
9-6pm Sat, 10am-3pm Sun). These are Spanish numbers; you have to prefix by 0034
from UK.
When booking online, make sure you use a debit card if possible as most budget airlines
charge £3-5 extra for the use of credit cards.
For best travel search engines, try
Expedia which includes some smaller airlines like BMI but not others such as
EasyJet. Opodo uses big name companies but
apparently has some good bargains--I haven't tried it for Spain.
To fly to Murcia airport (San Javier airport,
which is about 25 miles from the city of Murcia but close to La Manga and on the
sea), which is a nice little airport at
the southern end of the Costa Blanca (actually on the Costa Calida) on the Mar
Menor lagoon:
bmibaby from Manchester or Nottingham East
Midlands (Saturdays) or Birmingham (Sundays 12 June - 23 Oct 2005) to Murcia
eujet - Kent
and Shannon to Murcia IN ADMINISTRATION JULY 2005 (see news page)
Ryan Air - Dublin, Stansted, E
Midlands, Glasgow Prestwick (from 1 March 2005), Liverpool (31 March 05),
Luton (12 Jan 05) to Murcia (Note: on their website they describe it as
Murcia (Alicante), but it is San Javier airport in the Murcia region that
they fly to, and most definitely not anywhere near Alicante (it's 50
minutes at top speed on the Motorway away from Alicante airport).
JET2com to Murcia from Manchester, Leeds/Bradford, (NEW from Sep 4th,
2005) Newcastle.
Easyjet to Murcia from Bristol (7 July 2005).
Flybe to Murcia from Southampton and Birmingham (leather seats, decent
legroom) and *new* (2006) from Exeter and Norwich. (Check for charges for
checked in luggage.)
Flights to Alicante:
Aerlingus : to Alicante from Dublin.
Air Scotland : Out of operation as at 06/07
Bmi Baby : to Alicante from Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands,
Manchester, and Durham Tees Valley
British airways : to Alicante from Gatwick.
Budget Travel : to Alicante from Dublin.
Easyjet : to Alicante from Belfast, Bristol, Liverpool, Gatwick, Luton,
Newcastle, Stansted, and Nottingham East Midlands
Excel : to Alicante from a number of places (incl.Glasgow) (summer
months, rtn only)
Firstchoice
: to Gatwick, Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham,
Manchester, Glasgow, East Midlands
(one ways possible)
Flybe : to Alicante from Birmingham, Exeter, and Southampton
Flyglobespan : to Alicante from Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Jet2 : to Alicante from Manchester and Leeds Bradford
Jetmagic : to Alicante from Cork.
Monarch : to Alicante from, Gatwick, Luton and Manchester (you can
preorder hotmeals for a fiver).
Send mail to
jpt@st-and.ac.uk with
questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified:
03/04/10. All information is provisional and should be verified
by the reader, and strictly no liability is taken for any statements contained
in any part of this site.
