Regional government to take over airport

Castellón airport has been managed by a French company, but will be in the hands of public company Aerocas later this year

MANAGEMENT of Castellón airport will be taken over by the Valencia regional government, president Ximo Puig confirmed while visiting the installations late last week.

The airport is still controlled by French operator Edeis, but as of late next year, the regional administration will be in charge through public entity Aerocas after an agreement was reached between both entities.

Sr Puig said during his visit that ‘we want to ignore the paradigm of an airport that has been ridiculed and which has endured clearly improvable management’.

He also referred to the take-over as ‘positive’ for the region ‘in economic terms’, adding that ‘the airport will solidify its status through public entity Aerocas.

"We will ensure its future development in the most efficient way possible, from the standpoint of efficient management and not wasting resources," he said.

Negotiations are reportedly also ongoing with national public company Aena, who may become partially responsible for the installations and the success of their recently-announced campaign to attract passen- gers by partaking in international trade fairs and intensifying contacts with possible destinations.

Meanwhile, hotel platform Introducing Castellón, which speaks on behalf of businesses that look to promote the province as a tourism destination, issued a statement indicating that they believe the airport needs flights to and from Madrid, Scandinavia and markets that will become significant in coming years, such as Poland, Bulgaria, Rumania and the Ukraine.

They view the ownership change as positive, while hoping that businessmen and provincial and regional governments all work in the same direction to make sure this change has the desired effect.

At the moment, only Ryanair and Blue Air operate from the airport, offering passengers two or three flights a week to Bristol, London Stansted, Poznan, Salzburg, Sofia and Bucharest.

It has also been used for private flights, such as carrying Villarreal football club to matches, or Pedro Sanchez's controversial visit last month.

A total 144,221 passengers flew to and from the installations throughout 2017, up from 105,920 the year before.