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Aviation
Gibraltar International for the information). As Dr Joseph Garcia, deputy Chief Minister and minister with responsibility for aviation, remarked when referring to service agreements: “A part of the costs of running
the airport are commercially sensitive.” The financial arrangements take on particular significance because the EU, as part of liberalisation measures, aims to ensure within a decade that airports are not subsidised by government. It is a develop- ment Gibraltar “must get right”, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told Gibraltar
International in 2013. Observers consider the fact that the
terminal is owned and has been run by the MoD since the runway was first opened in 1939, presents a mitigating circumstance that could see the Rock excluded from the proposed EU measure. But a suspicion of reduced initial landing charges to encourage new flights, may fall foul of EU policy.
The MoD confirmed: “RAF Gibraltar is frequently referred to as Gibraltar International Airport due to the number of civilian aircraft [1,845 landings in 2014] which operate from the Government of
Gibraltar air terminal. “Today there are no military aircraft
permanently based there, however RAF Gibraltar remains at extremely high readiness to support UK military operations and visiting military aircraft [150 last year].” The airfield is licensed and regulated by the Military Aviation Authority.
Euro hub demand low
Another EU strategy ‘Europe 2020’ notes, “certain regions are hampered by poor accessibility from the rest of the EU.” Successive governments have sought a European hub airport connection to boost pas- senger numbers, (and for Gibraltar’s financial services and gaming sectors, to support the claim to be a key entry point into Europe for new investors).
Montegriffo maintained: “With Malaga airport again expanding its flights, one would have thought that greater Gibraltar connection would be achievable; there would appear to be demand [for the funds sector] to Switzerland, for example.”
Yet, the government is less optimistic. GTB pointed out: “ Data from IATA, which
shows origin/destination demand from cities such as Frankfurt to Gibraltar, for example, only show annual demand of hundreds of passengers a year.
“Airlines therefore consider that there is not sufficient demand to justify a direct service,” given that “airline economics and profitability would be non-existent”, it said.
In addition, Malaga’s extensive route network and frequency, especially to financial hubs and main cities such as Frankfurt, Geneva, Zurich, Brussels, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona etc., as well as the overlapping catchment areas of both airports, “makes the task that much harder to encourage airlines to start new services from Gibraltar to destinations that are already on offer from nearby”.
Jerez airport – about the same distance north from Gibraltar as Malaga - has expanded over 20 years as an international tourist destination and is considerably larger than Gibraltar - 758,000 mostly charter flight passengers in 2014, from 19 locations with eight being in Germany, two in the UK and one each from Luxembourg and Belgium.
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