You are right. Volotea has pulled the route from their schedules. Appears they didnt have Spanish permission, which is always a hot potato down there. May well come back but not I think this year.

I was struggling to see where the demand for this route would have came from. Iberia axed their short lived Madrid route, so not sure that this Volotea route would have worked. I don't think it would have been inbound tourism to Gibraltar, but equally would have thought the demand outbound from Gibraltar was limited owing to small population....

Must agree I did think it was an odd pairing even by Volotea

I’m not sure it was so odd with the changing context. GIB can serve some southern areas of Spain more conveniently than Malaga as I’m sure people are aware. Subject to ratification of Gibraltar joining Schengen it would be in effect a domestic flight, no border delays. But obviously that isn’t over the line just yet.

EI-BUD

Believe it's been over 10 years since there was last a direct service to Spain from Gibraltar. Had the route resumed in 2019 before the pandemic I reckon it might have done OK. The area of Spain around Gib I believe was one of the fastest growing areas in Spain in terms of Tourism., which is a further option rather than Gib itself as noted above.

BA announced this morning that BACF will operate LCY-GIB starting 25th June.

Twice weekly................ good prices at the moment.

Can GIB airport cope with all these airlines ? I know the terminal is fairly new but it seems like a lot more than 2019...

They have 16 check in desks and five stands with capacity for 1 million passengers annually.

davidjohnson6

The terminal is very spacious. And given most of the new routes are not even daily I doubt they will struggle for space.

I flew from Gibraltar when there were 3 departures within an hour or so a couple of years ago. Compared with heaving Luton I found the terminal spacious and still all but empty with a great first floor viewing terrace.

Agree there, been to GIB a few times now and last August there were x3 EZY and x1 BA all within same time frame.....ample space inside the terminal then plus as stated the outside viewing area is great too.

MAN-GIB goes daily from 1st August till the end of October.

If the ability to send an EMB135 on today's BHX/GIB/SOU in place of the E190 is anything to go by, it looks like loads on the Eastern GIB flights aren't up to much...

timings seem have changed to

sou 11:15 - 15:10 gib sun/thur
gib 16:00 - 17:55 bhx

bhx 09:15 - 13:10 gib mon/fri
gib 14:00 - 15:50 sou

Loads very light apparently 10 / 15 passengers on the SOU route

Think a lot of people have never heard of Eastern so very unaware of the route

Might be something to do with the eye wateringly high fares. I looked at BHX-GIB return with Eastern and even including petrol and parking, about 50% cheaper to fly from MAN with EZY return.

Then I looked at accommodation and thats where my holiday planning stopped, hoteliers there are certainly taking advantage of being on the UK green list!! Having visited a few times in the past, I'm not willing to pay a small fortune to visit again!

Generally the hotels there are expensive compared to other places. I went on a business trip there in Nov a few years back and the prices were very high. I guess it’s a question of supply and demand. There aren’t that many options for hotels there and a high increase in demand.

I’m booked into the Autograph (Marriott) in La Linea next Thursday €90 for two rooms bed an breakfast

Just heading to Gib for some shoppings

But that is the problem. Hotels in La Linea come under Spain / UK Covid rules. Amber list and all that. The attraction of Gibraltar is its Green list status.

Be careful in La Linea Aksai, border town and not the most solubrous place in Spain, lovely beach though, you can watch the inflatables arriving from North Africa!

In the event of a go around and nil landing at Gib due to weather, what airfield (country) is BA using as alternate at the moment? AGP or FAO?

On Wednesday the EasyJet MAN flight and the BA LHR flight used AGP. Usually it is AGP but been seeing more FAO lately.

OOPS. Does that flip the pax from green list to amber list?

That is exactly my query.

When I flew out of Gib I never bought any duty free until the inbound flight had landed because if you had to go to Malaga you had to pay tax or they were confiscated at security.

compton3bravo

Well aware, but thanks for the concern. just using it for a number for stop. Have to get from Tbilisi first, but that’s tomorrow’s problem

OzzyOzBorn

Simple answer is yes - Entry exit from/to Spain WILL subject you to amber restrictions if returning the the UK within 10 days

You will need to fill out the landing form, and false declaration along the recorded entry exiting at the Gibraltar borders may lead to prosecution for immigration breeches . Best of luck 🤞

Are Wizz having a rethink about some of the Gib schedules? I had heard that some flights in August appear to be cancelled?

GBC just reporting this on Twitter. The Luton flights have been cancelled in August. Wizz had previously advertised extra flights in July but these have now been also withdrawn. I think the Wizz thread on here was reporting that aircraft and crews are being re distributed round Europe due to staff shortages. Shame if the service goes.

Very heavy delays on today's EZY flights into GIB

Gib Airport site saying that its due to low cloud. EZY have cancelled the Gatwick flight and are holding the Bristol and Manchester. Strangely though the BA flight arrived and departed without trouble, whilst the local webcams show a murky day but clear visibility of the field. Seems to be an Easyjet problem, especially with cancellations. I wonder if they haven`t got enough flight crews up to speed yet. But certainly not enhancing their reputation.

I saw before that on Saturday the evening LGW flight diverted to FAO and went back to LGW with the outbound passengers still aboard, but no passengers were allowed off in FAO due to restrictions. It could maybe be related to that? Whether EasyJet are now diverting to FAO instead of AGP on a permanent basis remains to be seen, as I know they've been using there instead since the start of the pandemic whilst BA continue to use AGP for diversions.

The Wizzair flights are on sale from September right through the winter. easyJet did the same for July and August from Luton pre-covid for a couple of years.

How did the first EDI-GIB do?

Wizz Air have suspended LTN-GIB for Summer 2022. They have however not ruled out a return in the future.

Interesting to see that both EasyJet & Wizz have dropped Luton now whereas Monarch could make it work. Mind you, both reduced the schedules during the peak summer season where arguably demand for here is best. I wonder If they ever advertise it as a gateway to Southern Spain too, or could it not have been a very profitable route for Monarch during the time?

I suspect that as back in the day schedules to Gib were really only from Heathrow or Gatwick Luton and Manchester. Luton was at the time a fairly attractive market with holiday makers. Wizz and easyJet coming to the Gib party is fairly recent. Changed times and ofcourse the coming and goings into Gibraltar is attractive for UK holiday makers but Spain (for Andulicia) is maybe not presently quite as easy and straight forward as it was.

wont be the last UK-GIB route to go… never really understood the sudden flurry of UK services.

It was fairly obvious. GIB was one of the few destinations which had easy entry requirements at the time plus the GIB gov was offering enticements to carriers to launch services.