Spanish Travel News - July Edition

Dear {!firstname_fix},

The winner of the recent Car Hire competition we have been running is Christine Donald. Well done to her and I have contacted her already and shared the good news.

Whilst we are on the subject of car hire a lot of companies are getting fully booked for the forthcoming peak season so if you haven't booked your car hire yet get in quick! (Free Car Hire Quote Here).

Don’t be too disturbed by the recent evacuation of Ibiza Airport and the hoax bomb which had to be diffused. Although nowhere is safe from terrorist attack, this is the annual one that we usually have from the Separatist group ETA. They are a revolutionary group which formed in the 1950s and are still seeking to obtain an independent and socialist Basque country from Spain. Every year during the high season they leave a suspect package (and give a warning) at one of the main tourist resorts or airports in Spain. Hopefully this is it for the year, but be assured we are not under the sort of terrorist attack the UK is currently suffering.

Because this is the busiest time of year for travel to Spain, we thought it was worth reminding you of duty free allowances and have also put some useful emergency telephone numbers in for you.

Gary Ingram

We’ve been receiving reports about the effects of the collection of this additional information. Some airlines have been emailing passengers and asking for the information in advance, some are collecting it at check in, and the majority are just swiping your passport. If you have one of the newer ones with the coded strip on the identity page this already contains all the required information. Smaller airports do not have the swiping device. Nobody has said that horrendous delays have been caused by this new initiative, and the Spanish Airports Authority have anyway decided to relax the ruling until after the peak season and not hold up flights if a problem should occur and they do not receive the information before the flight takes off.

It’s the time of year when we get an alarming number of reports of thefts from Spanish Airports. Be extra vigilant with your bags, and when placing articles in the tray which goes through the security scanner make sure that they all come out the other side! Do not place articles such as camcorders in your hold luggage and carry them on board if you can.

For the latest news on what you can carry in your hand luggage click here.

It is worth checking that you are clear on what your duty free allowances are from Spain, the Canary Islands and Gibraltar. If you follow this link it will give you the required information on permitted goods

In an emergency in a foreign country it is obviously very difficult to know which numbers to ring. We have provided a list of the emergency numbers covering police, ambulance, British consulate and loss of a UK credit card.

I am afraid that building works for the new car park and terminal continue at this airport with no end yet in sight. To cope with the passenger traffic during the high season temporary modifications are being made on roads around the airport and vehicle traffic has been divided on the departures level, leaving two lanes for public transport traffic and stops, and an additional two lanes for passenger drop-off and collection in private vehicles. The final lane is for entering and exiting the PT-2 car park.

In addition to car park PT-2 (Terminal 2), there are more parking spaces in PT-1, in front of Terminal 1. There are also new public car parks at P-0 and a new free car park with security on the north side of the airport (P-3), next to the aeronautical activities area, with a free bus service to the passenger terminals.

The long awaited Fly Gibraltar launch has been postponed until next year so the additional flights which were promised will not be operating until then. The reason for the delay is that they have been unable to deposit the £10m insurance bond with the Civil Aviation Authority required to commence business. Aviation experts attribute the company’s failure to an over-ambitious business without the necessary financial back-up to support it. Hopefully they will get their act together for 2008.

They have opened up some much needed catering airside at Granada so you get a coffee, sandwich or cold drink at a small coffee bar just past security. They have also upgraded the land-side facilities with a new and much improved catering service with a larger seating/tabled area and reasonably priced hot and cold food.

Additional flights have been introduced connecting this airport to Santiago de Compostela, Malaga and Toulouse. Further details can be obtained at www.swiftair.com

We have been receiving lots of request for transport information from Girona to Benicassim so that they can attend the 13th Festival this year which is being held from 19th-22nd July. The best way to get there is via train from Girona City centre. There are some direct trains there or you can go via Barcelona. Details on timetables and prices can be obtained at www.renfe.es The line up for this year’s festival can be seen at www.fiberfib.com

We’ve been asked a few times recently whether or not some of the low budget airlines are operating to some of the smaller airports as their timetables only go as far as October. While most of the winter schedules for the main airports have been announced, some of the smaller ones are not yet available so afraid you will have to be patient. The best way to ensure you get the information as soon as it becomes available is to sign up to receive the airline’s newsletter. Over the next month or so we will also be putting all the new flight times on for the winter timetables on the Spanish Airport Guide.

Apart the new area guides , we are now in the process of enhancing the guide still further so that it provides even more information which is in direct response to the questions we receive. We get a lot of requests for information on bus and train timetables so we will add more about these on some of the sites.

It's our really busy time of year and we are being inundated with requests for information on our message board - some of it for people flying on the same day! This is a FREE help and advice line which we have to fit it in with other work commitments on the Airport Guide, so please give us as much as notice as possible if you need information on bus and train timetables in order to plan your journey as they can sometimes take some time to find for you.

And please carry on sending your travel tips or advice as we can pass them on to other travellers and include them in our monthly newsletter: a couple of this month's items have been sent in by newsletter subscribers..

DISABLED PASSENGERS:

We frequently get asked questions from less able travellers and it would be great to hear from any travellers with disabilities who have passed through any of the Spanish Airports as information at some of the airports is rather limited to say the least! Your advice and help could really make a difference to someone else's holiday!

Please email me with your experiences: gary@spanish-airport-guide.com