Flights and duty free allowances from Gibraltar Airport
Hi Mark,
Gibraltar Airport seems to be operating less and less flights every year. Last year FlyGibraltar was due to start operating direct flights to London Stansted, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and Dublin (28 return flights a week), but they were not able to raise and deposit the £10m insurance bond required by the Civil Aviation Authority for them to commence business. And all seems to have gone quiet on that front and I haven't heard of any new routes bring introduced this year.
The customs officials in Gibraltar are very strict about duty free allowances and you are only allowed to purchase 200 cigarettes there to bring back into Spain. you can find further details at http://www.spanish-airport-guide.com/duty-free.html
Linda
Gary
I now live 6 months of the years in Manilva Spain and Gibraltar is so much closer than Malaga, I have looked at the BA flights to Manchester and they are just so expensive.
When I bought my house back in 2001 (off plan) I was told as part of the sales pitch that Easy jet and Ryan air would be flying in and out of Gibraltar within the year. That is clearly not the case.
Are there any cheap budget airlines either flying to or planning to fly from Northwest England to Gibraltar in 2008.
Also I have been told that I can shop and buy my cigarettes in Gibraltar so much cheaper than at the local tabac, but the customs people are very sensitive about taking them back in to Spain. Is that true and if yes how many can I buy and take back to Manilva if I come to Gibraltar to do a shop at Morrisons?
Along question I know but any advice you can offer would be appreciated
Many thanks
Mark
Labels: Gibraltar Airport
posted by Spanish Airport Guide @ 10:29 AM
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3 Comments:
"Gibraltar Airport seems to be operating less and less flights every year."
I'm sorry but that's utter nonsense - and it spoils the otherwise excellent content on your site.
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London:
Remember the core route has always been Gibraltar-London. A route for which there is a year-round ever-present sustainable level of demand.
Well this summer there will be an additional 7 flights a week - one MORE a day.
easyJet have purchased GB Airways - who formerly operated as franchise of BA.
easyJet are honouring the full GB schedule of 2-3 daily flights to Gatwick as before.
"When I bought my house back in 2001 (off plan) I was told as part of the sales pitch that Easy jet and Ryan air would be flying in and out of Gibraltar within the year. That is clearly not the case."
Mark, I don't know who told you that - but they were fibbing I'm affraid.
In 2001 there was ZERO chance of either Ryanair or easyJet coming.
I'll address why that was the case in a minute, but take comfort easyJet are here now.
Anyway, following the loss of GB Airways franchise services, BA are adding an additional daily flight Gatwick to Gib operated by them selves.
Currently it is only 1 additional flight a day on this route - but this is due to BA aircraft shortage as they are currently trying to cover the GB sized hole in their schedules as best they can.
Additionally Monarch continue to operate to Luton 6 days a week.
Manchester and other UK destionations:
Manchester has in recent past history been the only other route from Gib to the UK.
GB Airways and other had tried it in the past, but gave it up due to low demand.
Monarch tried again later - and they made a good success of it with 3/4 flights a week.
However they were getting reduced landing fees as operating a new route.
When this discount was coming to an end they kicked up a huge fuss about landing fees believing that if they did so they would be changed.
Well Monarch misread the situation, the MOD - who at the time set the fees - didn't blink, and Monarch sadly felt compelled to close the route to Manchester (despite making some good money on it, even with the then normal fees) - just to save face.
Landing fees - the historical problem:
The problem was historically the MOD set the landing fees - and the entire operation was 'at cost'.
Unfortunately pleas from many, including James Gaggero, that if they lowered the fees then services would increase and the whole operation would expand and get more efficient all fell on deaf ears.
The Government of Gibraltar understood this, and recently they finally got the MOD to agree to a deal whereby GoG and MoD would split paying the costs of the airport between them.
But GoG would now set and collect the landing fees (and keep the revenue).
Now that the agreement is in place since the 30th March landing fees at Gibraltar have been radically lower.
Buy investing in the airport (i.e. underwriting the costs of lowering the fees GoG expects the services to expand.
And thanks to the agreement with the MoD it then gets to pocket the benefits - as well as the wider economic ones.
Don't hold you're breath for Ryanair - the cost base still isn't low enough for them.
(They like to turn the aircraft around stupidly fast - as Channel 4's dispatches programme showed! There isn't the infrastructure for that speed yet in Gib.)
However, easyJet have bases all over the UK. They might well be inclined to try some new routes (given that gatwick is now a tad over subscribed with 2/3 easyJet services plus 1 {if not more} BA services).
People in Gib have long said that if an operator did try a route they could be pleasantly surprised. - It just takes something to get them to give it a go.
easyJet probably wouldn't have come if they'd not bought GB, but now that they are here, they will understand the market a bit more.
Madrid:
Services to Madrid began in late 2006 with daily A319 services by Iberia.
Unfortunately Iberia's choice of midday flight time was very unpopular with both business and leisure travellers as it forces people to commit the whole day to travelling.
GB (operating as BA) then tried adding an evening service as well.
But with such bad midday times, there wasn't yet a market for such large aircraft twice daily.
The problem with the Madrid route were generally trying to go too big too soon - with bad flight times.
As a result Iberia reduced it to just Fridays and Sundays at lunchtime.
However very recently they changed their flight schedules for the summer, Madrid services will switch to a nice early evening time. No word yet on an increase in days operated though.
Beyond:
The new terminal and tunnel are progressing.
The current problem is the reduction to just one daily business class service to London.
Though this is leading to some other developments, including a soon to be launched (within a month?) private Jet service. Thought that's obviously for a different market.
Hope that helps.
Didn't mean to go on for so long, but if you said Gib airport developments were still only beginning to happen I'd agree.
But things are already expanded, and have certainly not contracted.
Someone will be back on the MAN route before too long. (Though, as I said above, don't view that as a 'lost route' currently - nobody operated it for long enough for it to be anything other than temporary in the past.
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Finally, customs:
"The customs officials in Gibraltar are very strict about duty free allowances and you are only allowed to purchase 200 cigarettes there to bring back into Spain."
For the benefit of anyone else reading this - the customs officials referenced are the Spanish ones on the Spanish side of the border.
This is due to Gibraltar being outside of the 'Common Customs Territory' of the EU.
When Gib joined the EU with the UK in the 70s it was given a number of exemptions by the EU.
These included being outside of the customs territory - and not needing to apply a semi-standards sales tax (VAT/IVA) because of it.
Another exemption was that it didn't need to take part in the common agricutural policy - for obvious reason.
So yes, you are free to shop in Gib, but will have to pay duty on any excess from your allowance.
If we shop in Spain, we need to pay 12% import duty on most goods bringing them into Gib. (If it was a high value transaction, we can sometimes reclaim the IVA which was paid).
Thanks for all that information which has provided a very useful background for me. But I still stand by what I said that Gibraltar Airport is operating less flights than it was when I moved here 5 years ago (and I am talking about the average over the whole year).
I shouldn't have been writing a 3:33am! It came across as a bit of a rant..... Sorry!
Anyway, 5 years ago, the only service I can think of that we don't have now is Manchester.
Generally total flight numbers are up on that period, - even restricted to flights to the UK, the number of flights it higher.
But restricted to the UK, the number of destionations is 1 fewer, and they are all 'London' again.
The number of airlines has doubled though. GoG remain in talks with other airlines - indeed it was confirmed in a Gibraltar parliamentary answer yesterday that they have had recent exploratory talks with BMI (but they would probably have covered bmibaby as well as bmi), still just talks.
The first question to be answered will be:
Will the IB Madrid service go back to daily for this summer. (If it does, it will quite possibly then survive the winter daily).
Secondary questions are:
How quickly will BA be able to get the aircraft available to allow the second daily operation to Gib that they want to provide?
(BAs old Heathrow shorthaul Airbus BA fleet is slowing going to be moving over to Gatwick - but it is also going to be replacing some of the 737s that are now due to exit service the moment they arrive.)
Can Monarch be persuaded to do MAN-GIB again? Can the be persuaded for this winter? (08/09)
Will easyjet try some other routes? When will they try them? (My money is on very late summer if they try them at all, otherwise it would be spring/summer 09).
Longer term, it is a question of new airlines and routes.
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