July 27th, 2010
Budget airline Ryanair is going to cancel 7 out of its 9 flights currently servicing San Javier Airport in Murcia because of the region’s business inflexibility and its handing €3 million to the small regional airline Air Nostrum (which mainly operates domestic flights from Madrid.)
Ryanair carries 49% of all UK traffic to Murcia and operates 76 flights bringing 120,000 tourists into the region each week during the winter.
Ryanair have said that the grant is “throwing good money after bad” as despite the massive cash injection Air Nostrum’s traffic has still reduced by 23% during the last year.
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July 6th, 2010
There is speculation that the Spanish Airport authority will start testing whole body scanners, most probably in the Cataluña Airports.
The Spanish Minister for Development has said they will be used on a “provisional and experimental basis” within the next six months to see how passengers respond. He declined to say exactly which airports could be involved but the region of Catalonia which includes Barcelona Airport, Girona and Reus Airports have been mooted.
The Minister said he was more concerned about safety than the discomfort to passengers and said that the trial would be optional for passengers initially.
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July 1st, 2010
The budget airline Ryanair have just announced plans to introduce flights where passengers stand during the journey for as little as £4. The airline wants to charge travellers for using the toilet in order to “change passenger behaviour” and help fund the cheap standing tickets. Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said safety testing of the vertical seating will take place next year, when the airline will also introduce a fee of £1 to use the lavatory.
The current plan is to remove the back ten rows of seats and replace them with 15 rows of vertical seats. Two toilets at the back could also be removed to free up more space. This means that between 40-50 extra passengers will be able to travel on every flight. In the vertical seats passengers will still wear a seat belt which will go over the shoulder and meet all the current safety regulations which apply to normal seating.
Ryanair will initially introduce the vertical seats on commuter flights with a journey time of up to an hour. If this proves successful then the company plans to implement the seating on all its aircraft.
Mr McNamara added: ‘The appeal of doing this is that it makes the costs lower for the airline, savings are stretched across passengers, costs are allocated to more people, all fares will go down, vertical seats are cheaper, and weigh less. The seats are lighter and the carbon footprint will be smaller, as more seats fit into a smaller area”.
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June 9th, 2010
If you are thinking of flying into Palma Airport and then looking for somewhere to stay a variety of new hotels for young clubbers, the gay community and rural tourists have opened in Mallorca.
The 328 room Ibiza Rocks Hotel opened on the island of Mallorca last weekend with a concert by The Kooks. It is aimed at the young market with a swimming pool and restaurant/ snack bar.
The two star Hotel Pegasus Playa on Playa de Palma has now been reopened to serve the gay and lesbian community. A swimming pool and sunbathing area are available in a hotel nearby which is owned by the same group.
In lesser-known locations, historic townhouses including Son Galceran in Esporlas, Petit Hotel Alaro and Sa Franquesa Nova in Villafrance de Bonany have opened in mountainous villages across the island.
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June 9th, 2010
Qatar Airways has launched a new daily service between Doha which is the capital city of Qatar and Barcelona el Prat Airport.
Flight QR067 was welcomed at the Spanish airport with a water salute. The route is the second destination for the airline after Madrid Airport and has been introduced to meet demand in Spain for air travel to the Middle East and Asia.
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June 8th, 2010
Ryanair is to open its 42nd base at Barcelona El Prat in September with five 737-800s and 20 new routes covering domestic and international destinations.
It already has five bases in Spain at Alicante, Girona, Madrid, Malaga (opening later this month) and Reus. The new Barcelona Airport base represents an investment of more than $350 million. Ryanair will operate 270 weekly flights to/from Barcelona El Prat in total.
The new routes include twice daily flights to Malaga, Palma and Seville: 11 times a week to Santiago de la Compostela: daily to Brussels Charleroi, Dublin, Ibiza, Bergamo, Paris Beauvais, Rome Ciampino, Santander and Valencia: six times weekly to Treviso: four times weekly to Dusseldorf Weeze: three times a week to Cagliari, Edinburgh, Oslo Rygge and Lanzarote and a twice a week to Tenerife.
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June 8th, 2010
If you are planning to fly into Barcelona Airport over the summer months and planning to spend some time on the beaches in that area, be warned that tourists who walk around the streets in their swimsuits are offending the local residents.
So much so that the city is launching a campaign to convince them to put on some clothes when they leave the beach. They have printed posters showing a couple in swimming costumes with a red line across it, alongside another couple fully-dressed without the red line.
Certainly if you enter El Corte Ingles department stores in other parts of Spain you are automatically asked to cover up.
The mayor has sent letters to businesses, hotels, bars and restaurants encouraging them to download the poster and display it on their walls.
There is no fine imposed if you are caught doing this, it’s more about being respectful of the Spanish locals.
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May 26th, 2010
Pilots in Spain will cease activity at Spanish Airports for half-an-hour between 09:00 and 09.30 on Monday 7th June in protest of the report regarding Spanair flight JK5022 being leaked by national Cadena Ser. The protest has been called by the union Sepla which claims that an investigation into a plane crash must remain confidential, stipulating that the use of the recordings should be restricted exclusively to the investigation. Pilots are recorded while flying to help discover the causes of an accident and prevent future ones, but this incident has made them feel exposed.
The contents of the recording from the cockpit of flight JK5022 which crashed at Madrid Barajas Airport in 2008 claimed the lives of 154 people.
The pilots have said that they don’t intend to damage the airlines but simply draw attention to the problem so that a solution is found.
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May 20th, 2010
The Spanish airport authority AENA has extended the retail outlet Aldeasa’s duty-free concessions at 14 airports across the country until 2012.
The extended contract covers Alicante Airport, Almería, Barcelona, Bilbao, Girona, Ibiza, Jerez de la Frontera, Málaga Airport, Menorca, Palma de Mallorca Airport, Reus, Santiago de Compostela, Sevilla and Valencia.
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May 18th, 2010
Singapore Airlines and the Spanish airline Spanair have signed a codeshare agreement to improve connections between Singapore and Barcelona El Prat Airport to Spanish domestic airports.
With immediate effect Singapore Airlines customers will be able to fly to Madrid, Palma de Mallorca Airport and Bilbao from Barcelona with a selection of flights to choose from.
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