I'm not a very good writer, constructive criticism appreciated.

I've been mostly visiting big Scandinavian and East European countries recently, so for a change I decided to take a trip to a small Mediteranean country. There aren't many countries I've walked the entire length of, Gibraltar is my favourite.

There aren't any flights from my home airport of LBA to Gibraltar, so I was left with a choice of BA via London or Monarch direct from Manchester. The timings meant Monarch was slightly better, but for a Low Cost Carrier I'm not convinced I saved all that much money - particularly considering the lack of onboard meal and lounge access.

The journey started after work on Easter Thursday, having just helped the newer members of our team resolve an incident. I was ready for anything, including the battle for my seat on a packed train to Manchester. As it turned out, the airport train was surprisingly empty so I sat down and relaxed.

My bed for the night was the Radison Blu at Manchester Airport, a single rather than a double but given the ridiculously early start the next day I was happy to sleep anywhere.

It had been around 15 years since I last flew from Manchester Terminal 2 and about the same time since I last flew Monarch. I wasn't expecting much, and I wasn't disappointed. Terminal 2 is no longer the shiny new modern terminal, it's a terminal mostly used by low cost carriers and a few long-haul visiting airlines. The paid lounge had terrible reviews, so I opted for breakfast at Frankie & Bennies which was perfectly fine.




The flight to Gibraltar was fairly full, but they had just enough room to try selling extra leg room during boarding for just �20. I passed on this offer, leg room in the cheap seats was pretty bad but ok for a two-hour flight. The cabin crew spent the whole two hours selling extra leg room, drinks and snacks, charity scratch cards, and duty free; I tuned it all out and enjoyed the copy of Business Traveller I'd acquired earlier. Routing was down the English/Welsh border to Cardiff, then across the Bay of Biscay and down through Spain.

Arrival into Gibraltar was straight forward, there are no jetties at GIB so stairs arrived at front and back for a quick exit. Everybody got asked by passport control whether they were staying in Gibraltar or not, but this seemed to just be for their counting. With no luggage I went straight through customs control, across the car park and then over the runway into town.

It was still a few hours before I could check in to my hotel, so I enjoyed a wander by the harbour and had some awful fish and chips at a pub in a quiet square off main street. It being a religious holiday there were no newspapers being printed, which meant the newsagents were all closed, which meant no local sim cards to be had; so I resigned myself to being mostly offline and made my way to my hotel.

I was staying in the o'Callaghan Elliot hotel, a nice 4 star hotel which was a lovely contrast to my last hotel in Amsterdam - a 2 star hotel in the red light district that my colleague had booked me. A nice big room, but with expensive wifi and bad TV - I wasn't here to stay in my room though, and the breakfasts were pretty nice. The choice for evening meals was pretty limited, so I never ate there

I got up early the next day hoping to fit in a nice walk before the heat of the previous day hit me. It never did get too hot that day, which was nice. Gibraltar was completely dead at 9am on Easter Saturday, I ended up down at Little Bay with just a few dog walkers and builders around. April is still winter season, so it wasn't until noon that things started getting busy.



The people selling tours the previous day were nowhere to be seen, so I made my way up the rock on the cable car. �10.50 for a return trip, with some nice views down into town. Morocco was just about visible in the distance, but mostly obscured by cloud.



A much nicer but over-priced lunch this time at Jury's, followed by a walk to the very south of the country to see the lighthouse at Europa Point.



An early flight back to England this morning meant it was dark when I went for breakfast at 7am. In addition to yesterday's buffet there were boiled eggs and Cadbury's cream eggs, a nice nod to it being Easter Sunday.

A stroll through town up to the airport, setting off nice and early in case they closed the path across the runway. Arriving before airport security did gave me an hour to use their free wifi in the terminal building before checking in.

Airport security really liked me, I know how to get through quickly compared to their average annual flyer. There are three gates at Gibraltar, and a handful of shops. I spent my last two Gibraltar pound coins on some much needed caffeine before watching the incoming flights. The Manchester one landed smoothly, and then the Birmingham one had a last-minute go-around. I'd heard Gibraltar is one of the most dangerous approaches in Europe, seeing an A320 go around at the very last minute made that real for me and several other passengers were heard remarking how scary it looked.




No announcements from the captain or first officer until we were well over the Bay of Biscay on the way back. In all my recent flying this was the first time I've noticed a female first officer. Routing was up over Southampton and East of Birmingham.

Arrived into Manchester a couple of hours before my booked train, so went in search of food. There's not much good food available landside at Manchester, so service-station sandwich and drink it was. The new Metrolink platforms at the airport station are coming along nicely, although quite some way from being ready still.



The train back to Leeds was as quiet as the outbound one, with a regular Sunday service running from Leeds.

Thanks for posting this trip report!

nice tr, thanks for posting

Thanks for posting - 1988 since I was last in GIB but I flew with the wife from TNG -did the tour and saw the Barbary apes of course.

Brings back some great memories of that takeoff and landing!

I know - they close the main road running across the airport apron/runway and I thought we were going to land in the sea. Memories.

I walked to the airport for my return journey and they were closing the runway to vehicles but not pedestrians just as I got to it. I was a little confused and unsure whether it was safe to walk across. They'd only closed it to vehicles to clean it though, so I carried on going once I saw others doing so.

Thanks for posting kaerast, enjoyed the TR. Great to see another TR from a fellow Loiner, I remember reading your PRG TR not so long ago.

Did you get some good views of Gibraltar as you came in? Depedning on the wind sometimes you come down the eastern side and go round the southern tip of the rock before lining up for an approach from the west.

Thank you very much for sharing. Enjoyed reading your report.

I-d always been curious to see the Rock and thanks to a good offer in a BA sale at the end of last year, I spent a couple of days in Gibraltar in mid-March.

The trip really exceeded my expectations: partly, I suppose, because it was quite sunny both days I was there and I also made it to the summit by cable car fairly early on in the day when things were quiet.

Nice views on the approach inbound. The BA A320 on the way out was a bit ropey, but coming back G-EYUT was a very fresh and clean aircraft.

Sadly not, just a lot of sea until we landed. I was on the right on the departure, so had a close-up view of the Spanish oil refinery and then the Bay of Biscay.

Thanks for posting!
Nice report.

Indeed, they are just for government statistics.

Firstly, it is not dangerous.

That is an urban myth largely created due to two factors. Firstly a National Geographic TV programme 'Worlds Most Extreme Airports' - but the criteria used for the programme included the unique and the unusual - which is how Gibraltar was entered in the list - due to the road crossing, the unusual (but safe) wind effects, and the water (safe). Sadly this TV programme was later repackaged in some markets and given advertising that it was the worlds most 'dangerous' airports with lots of sensationalist advertising. That is not the criteria the people who made the original programme used.

The second factor is the some people (erroneously) believe the runway is 'dangerously short' - well it isn't. What it does have is water around it rather than more typical land. This can makes it appear shorter - but it is a perfectly safe and valid length for the aircraft that use it. Small regional airports in various places have similar runway lengths.

What makes Gibraltar airport demanding (though perfectly safe) is winds. Due to the presence of the rock nearby, lots of wind effects are created - but they are very well understood (there has been an Met office station in Gibraltar for ages, it is well understood), the annoying thing is it only takes a slight change in wind direction (just a degree) and the effects will change from one type to another. So wind that is changing direction can make it change from a smooth landing to bumpy with only the slightest of change of direction, etc.

A go around is perfectly safe, there is *nothing* about Gibraltar airport that makes them dangerous. I've had go arounds at airports from big to small. Basically you feel like you are landing then you feel like you are taking off again. The aircraft remains at the same angle of attack, but the power is then applied (as per take off, rather than being reduced in a landing), it is quite smooth - some people don't even notice it if they are not paying attention.

Thanks for the explanation David-A

I have seen similar comments in the book I have just finished reading - Cockpit Confidential by Patrick Smith aka askthepilot.com. I am slighty paraphrasing here, but his comments were along the same lines as yours, i.e. that there aren't really "dangerous" airports/approaches and those labelled as such are slightly dramatised for the "10 most dangerous aiport" type programs. The point he made was if they were truely dangerous no pilot would fly there - pilots have no more interest at putting themselves at risk than passengers do. I think his comment was that there are airports which are more taxing, perhaps more tricky or challenging for a pilot, and I guess GIB is one of them.

I am sure kaerast was just using the term "dangerous" losely based on the overly dramatised media we have all seen, and doesn't believe it is a truely dangerous airport.

Yes, the word dangerous should have been in quotes. And whilst go arounds are nothing to be worried about, they aren't all that common. It really scared some of the passengers who only fly once a year.