Glenn Wickman
REGULAR flights have finally returned to Castellon airport eight months later.
In what is being announced as a second ‘COVID summer’, the only international connection secured so far from Castellon-Costa Azahar is a London-Stansted Ryanair flight that resumed last week.
As an overseas flight, the London connection is subject to all applicable COVID requirements and travellers are encouraged to check with the airline before travelling.
Wizzair has delayed its overseas connections to London Luton and Bucharest until at least June 30, Katowice to July 6, Vienna to October 2, and Budapest has been put back a whole year, scheduled for launch in June 2022.
This situation has prompted managers of the installations at Vilanova d’Alcolea to focus their efforts on the national market, with the Bilbao connection set to be relaunched for the second year on Thursday (June 10) and flights to Sevilla due to begin on July 28.
In a bid to promote the Castellon area as a prime tourism destination in those parts of Spain, a consortium of leading business managers in the hospitality sector, grouped under the name Introducing Castellon, have scheduled major presentations for travel agencies in both cities this month.
Spokespeople for Introducing Castellon highlight the convenience and speed of flying into the province from the north and south of the country, compared to long car journeys.
As well as making it easier for holidaymakers from other parts of Spain to travel to Castellon, the domestic flights are also being hailed as a great opportunity for Castellon residents to visit Sevilla and Bilbao, with relatively cheap tickets for three or five-day trips.
Hotel owners report that reservations from Basque and Andalusian travellers are ‘timid’, but insist that it is still early days, as domestic travellers tend to book at the last minute.
Between January and April this year, the Vilanova d’Alcolea base registered 7,750 operations despite the lack of regular connections, as it was used for charter flights for football teams, private jets, pilot school practice runs, and as a ‘parking’ and maintenance site for grounded planes.
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