Gibraltar Airport
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| Gibraltar Airport RAF Gibraltar |
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| IATA: GIB – ICAO: LXGB | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Military/Public | ||
| Operator | Government of Gibraltar | ||
| Serves | Gibraltar | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 15 ft / 5 m | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| m | ft | ||
| 09/27 | 1,829 | 6,000 | Asphalt |
Gibraltar Airport (IATA: GIB, ICAO: LXGB) is the civilian airport that serves the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar on the Iberian Peninsula. It is owned by the Ministry of Defence for use by the Royal Air Force as RAF Gibraltar. Civilian operators use the airport; currently the only scheduled flights operate to the United Kingdom and Spain. Passengers depart and arrive through the civilian operated terminal.
Gibraltar Airport has the distinction of being the closest airport to the city that it serves, being only 500 metres from Gibraltar's city centre. In 2004 the airport handled 314,375 passengers and 380 tonnes of cargo. Gibraltar Airport is one of the few Class A airports in the world.
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[edit] History
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The airport was constructed during World War II upon the colony's race course (introduced by the Maltese), when Gibraltar was an important naval base for the British. Originally opened in 1939, it was only an emergency airfield for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. However, the runway was later extended by reclaiming some land from the sea of the Bay of Gibraltar which Spain claims are their territorial waters, causing diplomatic tensions between Spain and Britain. This extension of the runway allowed larger aircraft to land at Gibraltar.
Spain’s continuing sovereignty dispute with the United Kingdom over the territory where the airport stands (different from the generic one on Gibraltar itself) has seriously affected the airport’s operations. In December 2, 1987, an agreement was signed between the governments of the United Kingdom and Spain to allow the joint civil use of the airport [1] The agreement foresaw the building of a new terminal at La Línea de la Concepción, Cádiz, Spain, adjacent to the northern side of the existing frontier-fence. However, the agreement was blocked by the Government of Gibraltar, led from 1988 by Joe Bossano. As a result, the agreement was never implemented.
Since then, Spain successfully excluded Gibraltar from European wide de-regulation initiatives, preventing direct links from Gibraltar to the rest of the European Union (except the United Kingdom), on the grounds that no regulation that somehow recognizes the sovereignty of the United Kingdom over the isthmus may be implemented without a previous agreement on the airport.
By late 2005 and early 2006, the implementation of a new agreement was one of the main topics of the tri-partite talks being held between the Governments of Spain, Gibraltar and the United Kingdom.
On 18 September 2006, the Cordoba Accord was signed by the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Spain and Gibraltar. This ended all discriminatory restrictions on civilian flights to Gibraltar Airport, including the prohibition of flights over Spanish soil, and exclusion of Gibraltar from all EU agreements on air transport, allowing civilian flights from all nations into Gibraltar Airport.[2]
On 17 November 2006, Iberia announced that it would start flights from Madrid to Gibraltar using Airbus A319 aircraft. This is a landmark move as no Spanish airline has flown to Gibraltar since 1979, because of its disputed status.
Iberia began flights to Gibraltar Airport on December 16, 2006 with a flight from Madrid that included some members of the Spanish Government onboard. GB Airways flew a one-off flight in the other direction with a group of children from the Gibraltar area making up the passengers. GB Airways (flying as a British Airways franchisee) also began operating the route between Madrid and Gibraltar in May 2007, however, this was discontinued on 30 September (leaving Iberia to work the route alone).
On 21 April 2008, Monarch Airlines announced they are to resume services from Gibraltar to Manchester Airport with a three times a week service starting on 12 September 2008. No other airline has operated services from Manchester since Monarch withdrew the route in July 2006. Monarch Airlines is the largest scheduled international carrier at Gibraltar Airport[3].
[edit] Future
The existing terminal at Gibraltar Airport has been for many years too small and the road across the runway is even more constraining to operations at the airport, especially with the increase in operations since the Cordoba Accord. The new expansion includes:
- Construction of a new 20,000 sq Metre, two storey terminal, 15,000 sq metres larger than the terminal it replaces. The new terminal will straddle the new road system, will have 4 gates, 3 baggage carousels and passenger capacity of up to 1 million per year.[4]
- A new 220 space, three storey car park located at the east of the terminal.
- The Road across the runway will remain in place, for exceptional, specific or emergency use. But it will not be available for routine day to day, private vehicular traffic. Pedestrians will not be required to travel via the new road/tunnel, and will continue to cross the runway at the present location. A new dual carriageway will pass under the terminal and towards the eastern edge of the runway at which point it will pass through a tunnel under it and connect via a roundabout with Devils Tower Road on the oppostite side of the runway. After the road tunnel on the north side of the runway the new road will run parallel to the frontier, passing under the air terminal fly-over section. The road will then branch into two, with one road leading to the loop and the frontier, and another leading to the Air Terminal, North Front and Winston Churchill Avenue.[5]
- A new Car Park will be built by Eastern Beach, and two multi-storey facilities will also be built on Devil's Tower Road.[6]
Construction of the new terminal is due to begin late in 2007 and be finished by 2008 with construction of the 4 lane diversion road and tunnel section is due to begin in January 2008 and be completed by the beginning of 2009. There will be no disruption to operations during construction as they are not built on the same site.[7] The new terminal will allow a large increase of capacity, and the runway tunnel will reduce delays and tailbacks caused by aircraft taking off and landing.[8]
[edit] Airlines and destinations
The following destinations are served from Gibraltar Airport:
[edit] United Kingdom
- British Airways (London-Gatwick)
- easyJet (London-Gatwick)
- Monarch Airlines (London-Luton, Manchester [begins 12 September])
[edit] Spain
- Iberia Airlines (Madrid)
[edit] Malta
- Air Malta (Malta) (seasonal)
[edit] Other
Some destinations in Morocco are also served by charter airlines.
[edit] Trivia
- Winston Churchill Avenue (the main road heading towards the land border with Spain) intersects the airport runway. The road is consequently closed everytime a plane is landing or departing.
- The Airport is built on rock which was blasted from the Rock of Gibraltar while carrying out tunneling works in the 1940s when the last major expansion was completed.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Joint Civil Use of the Airport. Retrieved on 2004-08-15.
- ^ Cordoba Tripartite Agreement. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.
- ^ Monarch resumes services between Manchester and Gibraltar. Monarch Airlines. Retrieved on 2008-04-22.
- ^ New Gibraltar Airport Terminal Plans revealed. Retrieved on 2007-10-28.
- ^ Press Release: The New Air Terminal. Retrieved on 2007-10-29.
- ^ Press Release: The New Air Terminal. Retrieved on 2007-10-29.
- ^ Press Release: The New Air Terminal. Retrieved on 2007-10-29.
- ^ 'Terminal is Just the Beginning' - The Gibraltar Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-10-28.
[edit] External links
- Press Release for New Air Terminal, tunnel under the runway and new road leading to all parts of Gibraltar north of the runway
- Artist's rendition and architectural designs for new Terminal
- A to Z of World Airports- Gibraltar Airport
- Photo of gibraltar airport and the unique road.
- Airport information for LXGB at World Aero Data
