HAPPIER LANDINGS?

With both GB Airways and Monarch planning to introduce bigger aircraft with greater seating capacity on the London-Gibraltar route from this summer,obtaining a last minute booking should become easier. But will it? All the pointers suggest that it will not. For,in spite of the fall-off in global air travel that was sparked by the events of "9/11" and lingers on more than 18 months later, the numbers of travelers arriving on the Rock by air continues to grow — and by a whopping 50 per cent last year alone.

"There is a substantial and steadily increasing mar ketfor air travel to and from Gibraltar, and in recent years several carriers have shown an interest in open ing up routes to the Rock— not only from London but from other parts of Britain as well as continental desti nations," Minister for Trans port and Tourism Joe Holliday told me recently.

"But when an airline looks to coming here they consider not only the poten tial market, but the operat ing costs — and that's where the handicap emerges. The MoD landing charges — which are possi bly four times as much as those charged by other air ports such as Malaga — are a strong deterrent, particu larly as far as low-cost air lines are concerned."

Outside the Gibraltar Air Termmal

As is the case with other commer cial airports, the MoD calculates landing charges in relation to the weight of an aircraft. The bigger the aircraft, the higher the cost. And it justifies the crippling fees it charges commercial planes for landing here on the grounds that running the air base and maintaining the runways is an expensive operation. But just how expensive that is is anyone's guess,for,in spite of requests by the Gibraltar Government, the MoD the burden of operating the airport — though as a strategic part of Brit ain's and NATO's defence network the use of its airport facili ties but any charges should take into account its own need to have the base and its own use thereof." declines to part with the fig ures.

And he points out that if a realistic — and lower cost was put in place this would increase the number of landings and, in turn, generate a lower per unit cost.

There issome light on the horizon, though. In recent correspondence with the Government,the MoD has suggested that the two par ties should meet, I under stand. As this is the first move initiated by the local defence wallahs,it suggests that there may at last be some movement and an impetus to reach a more re alistic agreement on cost ing.

Let's hope so!

Several low-cost airlines have shown an interest in providing a service to and from Gibraltar and if landing fees here are reduced this would encourage them — and ben efit travellers by offering cheaper fares... though, of course, there's still Spain's dog-in-the-manger in transigence that will need to be overcome.

"This is something that we have raised on an on-going basis not only locally with the MoD in Gibraltar but at a ministerial level in the UK," says Holliday."And we have offered an element of finan cial support, where the Gi braltar Government would contribute an annual sum to wards the running costs to overcome a 'transitional pe riod' if more realistic com mercial rates were intro duced."

Up to now there has been little progress in the talks be tween Government and the MoD which claims it carries the airport would have to be maintained, whether or not it was used by commercial air lines.

"They would have to have the airport — a point that has been raised with Ministers in the UK as well as with visiting MPs — and this wasstressed again in the recent report of the For eign Affairs Committee of the British parlia ment," Holliday adds.

"We believe that it should be looked at in terms of levels per unit costs. Clearly the MoD has a right to charge for Gibraltar has become an increasingly popular destinationfor air travellers