The Spanish airline company Iberia estimates that 70,000 passengers will use the new Gibraltar-Madrid service in 2007, a figure that may increase to 100,000 in the near future, that is to say the total number of seats available this year.

The service leaves Madrid every day at 11.50am and arrives in Gibraltar at 13.00, while the return flight departs from Gibraltar at 13.30 and gets into Madrid at 15.00. The aeroplane chosen for this service is an Airbus A319 with a capacity of 141 passengers. Return flights, if you book on line, cost 73 euros all inclusive.

The beaches of Cádiz are just an hour from Madrid

Before embarking on this venture, Iberia carried out market studies which revealed that there was a great demand for this service amongst tourists as well as businessmen and women. As the Rock of Gibraltar is located on the Cádiz coast, the airport is in easy reach of the beaches of Cádiz are therefore just an hour away from Madrid. Gibraltar airport also has the advantage of being close to both the Cádiz coast and the Málaga coast.

As a business airport its location is also appealing, since Gibraltar, Ceuta and the Campo de Gibraltar area are home to a great number of important companies and businesses.

The advantage of this flight is that for practical reasons it can be considered a domestic flight since passengers remain on Spanish soil when they embark or disembark. Via a walkway, passengers avoid having to enter Gibraltarian territory, thereby streamlining bureaucratic procedures and saving time.

It is one of the most important consequences of the agreement over the shared used of Gibraltar airport signed a few months ago by the governments of Spain, the United Kingdom and Gibraltar.

The inaugural flight

The historical inaugural flight which landed in Gibraltar from Madrid last Saturday 16 December with political representatives and journalists aboard was the first flight from Spain to the British colony in more than 30 years. In the end public demand on both sides of the fence has overcome political differences and ideologies.

But the “Ciudad de Baeza” was not the only aeroplane to fly between Madrid to Gibraltar on December 16. GB Airways flew from Gibraltar to Madrid, a trial run for the service which starts on 23 May.

The sister company of British Airways has not as yet announced flight days and times nor the frequency of the service. At present GB Airways’ fleet is made up of fifteen aeroplanes: eleven Airbus A320 with a seating capacity of 156 and four Airbus A321 with 189 seats.

GB Airways already runs 15 flights a week to London Gatwick. Monarch Airlines which will soon fly to Jeréz, also flies between Luton and Gibraltar once a day in both directions.

The airline with most flights to and from Gibraltar will be Fly Gibraltar, a new company which was recently launched at the last World Travel Market in London.

The company will operate from 27 April and will offer 28 flights a week: eleven to London Stansted, five to Manchester, five to Birmingham, four to Bristol and three to Dublin.

www.iberia.es
www.gbairways.com
www.flymonarch.com