Spanish Airport Guide News

Girona Airport has just opened six new boarding gates, which added to the 19 currently in operation, brings the total to 15.

The new gates are situated at the southern end of the first floor of the passenger terminal will greatly improve the boarding process.

The work done to complete the expansion of the boarding area is part of a major refurbishment of the Girona Airport terminal, which began in 2008. In the past three years over 10 million euros has been spent in expansion and improvement works which include the extension of the check-in lobby, new public access to the boarding area and relocation and expansion of the passenger security filters.

The south module of the new car park building P2 at Girona Airport is situated directly opposite the passenger terminal. It is a six-storey building (three floors above ground, a ground floor and two underground floors) which offers visitors to Girona Airport a further 1,750 parking places.

With the opening of the P2 a new pedestrian crossing is also inaugurated. There is a pedestrian crossing linking the two modules of the new car park which offers direct access to the vehicle rental building from the terminal.

The north module is planned to be finished and operational by summer 2010.

At the moment there are a total of 5,100 parking spaces in two areas:

P1 (with two buildings, P1A and P1B). With the construction of the north module of the new P2 car park building, the public car park payment office has moved to a temporary location in building P1B. There are now two automatic payment machines (cash and credit) in the main entrances of buildings P1A and P1B.

P2 is located opposite the terminal and passengers can reach the check-in area via the 10 metre pedestrian crossing. It is open 24/7 with two lifts, five automatic payment machines and two manual incident machines.

Millions of air passengers face at least two more years of travel disruption under the proposals made by the European Commission limiting the amount of liquids they can take on board a plane as hand luggage.

The ban on carrying liquids in hand luggage will be lifted in 2012 for airports which handle more than 10 million passengers a year, but the smaller airports will have to wait until 2014.

This would mean that from 2012 a passenger travelling from London Stansted to Girona Airport in Spain would be able to carry as much drink and toiletries as they wanted in their hand luggage from Stansted, but would have to get rid of or put the liquids in their hold baggage when they fly back from Girona.

Ryanair is to increase its fees to check in bags and sporting equipment from 1st  October by up to 50%.  The cost of checking in a bag has gone up to £15 from £10 if booked in advance online and to £30 from £20 if you pay at the airport.

Ryanair is also changing its baggage policy to allow passengers to take a second bag weighing up to 15kg on payment of an additional fee. The second bag will be charged at £35 if booked on the internet and £70 at the airport. Currently they allow passengers to take up to three bags with a combined weight of 15kg with the second and third bags charged at £20 each single trip.

At the same time the fee for sports equipment will rise by £10 to £40 if booked on the internet and £50 if paid at the airport. These additional charges will certainly make Ryanair less attractive for skiers and snowboarders who fly into Girona Airport who often travel with a suitcase to accommodate their kit including salopettes, ski boots and skis or a board.

The low cost airline Ryanair has just announced that with effect from 1st October 2009 it will close nine of its routes which operate out of .Manchester Airport.  The Spanish route affected is Manchester to Girona Airport near Barcelona.

This is in response to the airport authority refusing to lower their passenger charges to less than the current £3 charged.

Any passengers who have already made a booking on this route will be sent an email and provided with a full refund, or may be given the alternative of flying from East Midlands, Leeds Bradford or Liverpool Airports. For further information passengers should contact Ryanair