GIBRALTAR

[paully]

New service to Tangiers

Just been announced today that Royal Air Maroc will start a new service in March between Tangier and Gibraltar with 2 flights a week...Well done and good luck to them

More details here:

GBC | Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation

[paully]

Easyjet celebrates 1 million pax from GIB

Easyjet is celebrating its 1 millionth passenger from Gibraltar, in less than 7 years, they say..well done

General News Stories

New service to and from Bristol starts 19th April...wish they would bring Liverpool back

[MKY661]

A surprise announcement, EasyJet are to start a new route from MAN twice weekly from 3rd July 2016. Times are as follows:

WED
EZY1963 MAN-GIB Dep. 13:50 Arr. 17:55
EZY1964 GIB-MAN Dep. 18:25 Arr. 20:30

SUN
EZY1963 MAN-GIB Dep. 07:25 Arr. 11:30
EZY1964 GIB-MAN Dep. 12:00 Arr. 14:05

Monarch will continue to operate 4 weekly next Summer as well.

Good to see competition, and I hope both flights last for as long as possible.

EasyJet will also increase LGW flights from 7pw to 12pw from next summer as well. BRS will remain 3pw.

[paully]

Can`t see the logic on this one I`m afraid..Going head to head with Monarch and with similar flight times which arn`t brilliant for onward connections. Then they have upped the service to an A320 instead of the A319 that they sometimes struggled to fill from Liverpool in the past.

I know Leeds have been pushing for a Gibraltar route in the recent past from Monarch, just idly wonder if this is an attempt by EZY to shake Monarch`s tree to see what falls out...If nothing does and the yield doesn`t come up to scratch (like at LPL)then they will pull off it..Question is just how long?

[MKY661]

I will probably continue to use Monarch as the flight times are better as well, though good luck to EasyJet, it's good to see new routes coming here.

[MKY661]

Revenge time for Monarch! With EasyJet starting MAN flights next year, Monarch have decided to compete with EasyJet and start flights to LGW next year from the 1st May 2016. Will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Will post full info when it's out.

[EK77WNCL]

How about some love for the north and Scotland? Try and make your own market instead of competing for the same people! MON could make a good go of LBA and EZY could probably do very nicely out of Edinburgh or Glasgow

[MKY661]

As stated above, Monarch are to start a new route from LGW four times a week from 1st May 2016. Times are as follows:

MON
ZB7240 LGW-GIB Dep. 06:15 Arr. 10:10
ZB7241 GIB-LGW Dep. 10:55 Arr. 12:45

THU
ZB7240 LGW-GIB Dep. 07:00 Arr. 10:55
ZB7241 GIB-LGW Dep. 11:40 Arr. 13:30

FRI/SUN
ZB7244 LGW-GIB Dep. 16:40 Arr. 20:35
ZB7245 GIB-LGW Dep. 21:20 Arr. 23:10

BHX also increasing to 4 flights a week

How about some love for the north and Scotland? Try and make your own market instead of competing for the same people! MON could make a good go of LBA and EZY could probably do very nicely out of Edinburgh or Glasgow

I can maybe see Scotland starting in a few years. I also think DUB will be much needed. As Málaga is a very popular destination there is likely to be demand here as well as the south west coast of the Costa Del Sol

[EK77WNCL]

I'm surprised Aer Lingus hasn't tried sending a few weekly A320's down there... Could FR get a 738 in and out?

[compton3bravo]

There is a ´´problem´´ with the Spanish authorities regarding other European airlines as Gibraltar is not part of the EU Open Skies policy even though Iberia did try a Gib-Madrid service some years ago but it did not last very long.

[paully]

The major problem for Gibraltar, as far as the Spanish were concerned, was called Garcia-Margallo...now thankfully departed from Spanish politics.The winds of change are blowing through Madrid and I think a new approach may be on the cards in the new year...A lot of his own party disagreed with Margallo over Gibraltar, but were frightened of the buffoon

Hopefully Aer Lingus and others might be persuaded to give it a go..

EK 77...Ryanair is unlikely, as the airfield is rather short , and the 738 needs to be equipped for `short field `operations, which I dont think they have..LBA has been angling for a route to Gib for some time now, so maybe a Monarch from there is a possibility..

[EK77WNCL]

Could LS be a shout for LBA? Then maybe NCL, EMA, GLA, MAN? 733's have coped alright in the past as have 757's

[FFHKG]

Hold-on guys. Before you get carried away with routes here, there, and everywhere to GIB, just what is the size of the potential market for flights into and out of GIB? Airlines need to get the right LF's otherwise a new route will quickly disappear.

OK, GIB has good access to southern Spain provided the border is operating efficiently, but there are other airports that also serve this region.

[paully]

I agree, the worst thing that could happen is half baked routes started, then pulled..It all comes back to the political situation with Spain.Little is going to happen in the short term until the new Madrid Government forms a view, and that may be some time off..

Although Jerez is a larger airport in the region, no one has really shown much serious appetite for it,so far and Seville is too far away. Malaga is not everyone`s favourite either..

Time,though, will tell

[Heathrow Harry]

If the Spanish had any brains they'd remove the border and do everything they could to encourage Spaniards to use Gibraltar

After 20 years the place would be indistinguishable from Spain and the population would look to Madrid rather tham London for jobs & investment

[Aksai Oiler]

The Spaniards cannot remove the border unless you have missed something. Gibraltarians do not want to be Spanish, they have too much to loose in pensions etc. Gib is self supporting and costs the UK nothing, everybody was coexisting quite happily until Rajoy and his PP facists came along.

[compton3bravo]

I think you better read your history books Aksai about the relations between Spain and Gibraltar. It goes back many, many years and will not be solved in the near future or ever I am afraid.
The main ´´problem´´ people have with flying from Gib is the vagaries of the weather there. As has often been said it has a micro climate (warm air from the Med meeting cold air from the Atlantic) plus the Costa del Sol was called´´The Windy Coast´´ before it took its present name and a lot of people I know refuse to fly because of this and prefer Malaga. Also there are only 30,000 residents living on Gib plus not many Brits living up the Costa de Luz so I think it has come to about its limit for flights to the UK. A Dublin and/or Cork service would work I think 2/3 times weekly but that will not happen in the near future unfortunately.

[Aksai Oiler]

Compton, what do you think I am try to say? My comments were to HH's note about removing the border - it just will not happen, one hopes, naturally with a new new more moderate government in Madrid, the current restrictions will be eased (should the PSOE and Podemos be able to get their act together and restrain any coalition with the facist PP.

I travel from GIB frequently from my house in Costa de Luz, and frequently sit in the queues waiting for the breaks when the Madrid based customs guys bugger off, for relative normality to return. I use bothe GIB (to connect through LHR) and XRY frequently on my weekly travels to the Middle East, Asia and the CIS.

[LGS6753]

Aksai -

You evidently have a problem with Spain's largest political party. That doesn't make them fascist.

[Heathrow Harry]

Aksai

the complaints about the border over the years have come from the people of Gibraltar when the Spanish enforce border controls on their side. I've never heard of the Gib. authorities trying to stop Spaniards from nearby areas from visitng/using Gib. and it always looks as if they'd be very happy to have an open border (it would really help the cigarette smuggling business but that's another argument).

I am not advocating handing Gib over to the Spanish - what I'm suggesting is that in the very long run it will probably occur to the people of Gibraltar that they'd be better off in Spain than out of it (imagine the UK -or at least England - leaves the EU for example...)

Might well be 100 years time