A visit to Gibraltar Airport (illustrated)

[sn26567]

Gibraltar Airport is well known for its runway crossed by a public road. I wanted to check by myself and took an organised tour to Gibraltar from Malaga on Monday, 28 February 2011. The bus had to pick up several people at different hotels and that made the trip quite long.

Arriving at Linea de la Concepcion on the Spanish side of the border, there was a long queue which did not move for quite a while. The reason was simple: the barrier (which I did not see in the distance) was closed. When the queue started moving again, the bus switched to a special lane and was quickly at the border, where passport control by officials from both countries was fast. Although Gibraltar is part of the European Union, it is not in the Schengen area. Furthermore it is a tax free zone, hence the need for the controls.

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Picture 1: the queue before the border, caused by the closure of the road crossing the runway

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Picture 2: the closed barrier in the opposite direction (from Gibraltar towards the Spanish border; the new terminal can be seen in the back)

The airport is immediately after the border, and the terminal building is the first building in Gibraltar territory. The current terminal is rather small and flanked by the tiny control tower. A new terminal is under construction and near completion.

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Picture 3: the control tower

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Picture 4: the new terminal

Immediately after the terminal and the control tower the main road coming from Spain crosses the single runway, which is very wide and also serves as taxiway. On the other side of the runway are several hangars used mainly by the Royal Air Force. However I did not see any military aircraft outside.

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Picture 5: A Royal Air Force hangar

When an aircraft is announces, sirens start making a strident noise, and every person and vehicle must clear the road on the airport grounds. The barriers close soon thereafter. For good measure, policemen assist the whole process on both sides. That easily takes a couple of minutes. As soon as the runway itself is cleared, the barriers are lifted and traffic can go through.

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Pictures 6 and 7: as soon as the barrier opens, pedestrians, motorcycles and cars start crossing the runway

I did not see a lot of traffic that day during the 4 hours and 30 minutes I was in Gibraltar. A British Airways A320 had landed while I walked from the bus station to the airport, and two Monarch A320s were parked at their stand. They all had left when I quit Gibraltar and no other plane was seen.

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Picture 8: a British Airways Airbus A320 (G-EUUV) taxiing to its stand

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Picture 9: Three Airbus A320 aircraft at their stand: a scheduled flight from BA (G-EUUV) and two charters from Monarch (G-OZBB and G-MPCD)

Just for the anecdote, getting out of Gibraltar is far more complicated than getting in. Everybody must leave the bus with all his belongings and pass the border on foot before boarding the bus at the other side of the border, and there is a serious control by the Guardia Civil on the pedestrians and inside the empty bus to check if nobody exceeds the limits for tax free goods (200 cigarettes, 1 litre alcohol and 300 euros).

[turbopilot]

Nice report André...

I was there last year, in October ...and yes the same long queue that lasted some 30 minutes before I decided to park my rental car along the road and went walking to the border. And as you, I did not notice much traffic, one A320 from BA at the terminal, one C-130 from the RAF along with an army helicopter.
But still a nice souvenir to have been there !

Christian

[liege-bierset]

Interesting indeed.
Hong Kong has returned to the hart of the dragon.
Gibraltar colony is a total non-sens in UE. The Empire is dead.
Look at this... http://www.google.be/imgres?imgurl=http ... CCEQ9QEwAg

[andorra-airport]

Yes, Gibraltar Airport is very special! Although there are more airports with a road crossing the runway / taxiway . LHR had one, not many people know that. (road is blocked /closed now I think)

Here is another nice one: a railway line crossing the runway: Gisborne Airport (GIS) New Zealand.

[andorra-airport]

Talking about roads and airports: by accident I came across a webpage about Haren-Evere airport :

"After the war, the runway of Haren was too short for modern aircraft.
The Ministry of Defence gave permission for the DC-4's to takeoff from the airport of Melsbroek. After the passengers in the terminal of Haren stepped into the plane, it continued ON THE ROAD to the airport of Melsbroek for takeoff. Everybody sees in the streets an unusual spectacle. The planes had priority over other vehicles. The Highway Code had even a new sign "DANGER AVION - AIRCRAFT DANGER". Signalman and soldiers made ​​the route free"

http://www.haren.burech.com/Haren%20NL/ ... ion-NL.htm


I never knew this, very funny to read!

[regi]

Gibraltar colony is a total non-sens in UE. The Empire is dead.

Interesting visit!
The status of Gibraltar is quite ambiguous. Colony, full Brittish citizenship, non-Shengen, right hand driving, it is just a mix. Spain its claims are a bit doubtfull in the view of their own possesions in Northern Africa.

I would not say that the empire is dead. It was fighting the last years at exactly the same locations as during its colonial times, i.e. Iraq and Afghanistan. ( and now this Libya thing )

I am no Anglophile. But has it not been a good thing that Gibraltar was occupied by the Brittish, especially for all naval activities in WW2 ? Let us put it this way: what if Gibraltar was just a Spanish rock during WW2?

[Passenger]

There was a soccer game in Gibraltar yesterday evening: a pre-Champions League match between Lincoln Red Imps and HB Torshavn.

Look at the top right corner of this movie what happened next...

[quixoticguide]

Nice , it's wasn't for the Champions League but for the Europe League.

The result was 1-1

[sn26567]

The Gibraltar Government has won the latest round in a long-running legal wrangle to recover the costs of completing a tunnel under the runway of the British Overseas Territory from Spanish civil engineering firm Obrascón Huarte Lain (OHL).

At present all road traffic into and out of the enclave has to stop for aircraft movements.

A London court has dismissed an appeal by OHL challenging an earlier ruling that found the Gibraltar Government had properly terminated a £26m contract for the project in 2012. Work was suspended at that time and it will take at least 18 months for the project to be completed once a final go-ahead is given.

The Spanish company, which has indicated it will seek leave to appeal this latest decision, will have to pay the costs of bringing in a new contractor to finish the work, as well as the Government’s legal costs. OHL has already agreed to make an interim payment of £250,000. The Gibraltar Government said that OHL was “extremely unlikely” to succeed with the appeal to overturn the judgement.

The airport says it is having a record year, the 400,000-passenger barrier broken in 2014, and the new easyJet route from Bristol particularly successful.

Source: BTNews