Apr 25 A Busy Summer For The Airport
Gibraltar International Airport (GIB) is gearing up for a busy Summer 2013 season.
The season, which officially started on Sunday 31st March and runs through to Saturday 26th October, will be the first summer where operations are fully handled from the new terminal building. More than 1,800 flights are planned with 300,444 seats available to 5 destinations until the end of October.
The public will recall the introduction of a 3 times weekly service to Birmingham by Monarch Airlines launched on Saturday 23 March and operating on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Monarch Airlines will also introduce an additional 4th weekly service from Manchester to Gibraltar on Sundays (starting 26th May) adding to the existing services on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Further, the London area will see additional capacity this summer with the continuation of British Airways’ 2 extra London Heathrow services which started in October 2012. This will allow customers the choice of daily lunchtime services, with additional afternoon flights on Saturdays and Sunday. London Heathrow allows for worldwide connections with British Airways and Oneworld alliance airlines from the world’s busiest international airport.
Monarch Airlines continues to operate its popular London Luton service 5 times per week - this link to London Luton allows customers in the North of London and the northern Home Counties area quick and easy access to the Rock.
Easyjet will offer even more seats on their London Gatwick services by replacing their smaller Airbus A319 with the larger 180 seat Airbus A320 on selected services. Additional services to London Gatwick will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays for the summer period, an extra 4 flights per week for the busy summer months, offering a total 11 weekly flights.
Overall, 32 weekly flights are planned for the summer peak - Sunday will be the busiest day, with 7 flights offered to all destinations available with 2 services each to London Heathrow and London Gatwick.
Commenting on the summer schedule, the Minister for Tourism, Commercial Affairs, Public Transport and the Port, Neil Costa MP said: "I am delighted with the additional growth in flights and seat capacity on existing routes, as well as the new service to Birmingham, all of which reflects the continued commitment by airlines to the Gibraltar market. This growth is in line with the Route Development Strategy of HM Government of Gibraltar, which focuses on developing new links to UK regional airports and looking into the possibility of flights to other European cities, in addition to growing seat capacity on existing routes".
