In the absence of a current high speed rail network in Murcia, the president of Murcia, Fernando Lopez Miras, recently claimed that flights connecting the cities is a necessity. Connecting the region of Murcia to major Spanish cities such as Madrid and Barcelona is considered vital to the region and current talks are looking at both the potential high speed rail and flight options.
In efforts to ensure rapid and efficient travel across Spain, there have also been plans to extend the AVE high speed rail network to Murcia. The original proposal was that works to extend the line down into Cartagena were due to start at the end of this year. The new connection would have cut down journey time from Murcia to Madrid by half an hour. As of this month, Jose Luis Abalos, the Minster of Development, confirmed that further to certain delays and issues, the works will continue as scheduled and the high speed AVE train would eventually reach Cartagena via towns such as Sucina.
Whether there is a scheduled end date for the proposed AVE network or how this will impact on new flight routes connecting Madrid and Barcelona to Murcia, remains to be seen. In the meantime however, the president of Murcia has been said to be “in talks” with various airlines to increase internal flight connections. Which airlines or routes have been spoken about, has not been announced. Barcelona based Volotea may well be one of them.