Monarch restores Manchester - Gibraltar flights, BA flight times change.

Monarch Airlines have reintroduced their service between Manchester Airport and Gibraltar.

Despite reports of very good loads, the route was suspended 2 years ago by Monarch in protest over the higher than typical landing charges at Gibraltar Airport. Landing charges were at the time set by the MOD who operate the airport as RAF Gibraltar.

The reintroduction of Manchester flights follows a deal struct between the Government of Gibraltar and the MoD whereby the Government would contribute to the costs of the airport but would be able to reduce charges.

Flight times:

Depart MAN 0715, Arrive GIB 1115
Depart GIB 1200, Arrive MAN 1400

It will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 12th September.

[Monday services operate 20 minutes earlier at 0655 and 1140.]

Interestingly it is currently planned to be operated as a simple out-and-back service, previously it operated as a W pattern from Manchester to Gibraltar and back with Luton Airport in the middle.

British Airways schedule change for winter:

Due to BAs currently highly stretched fleet as they try to cover a GB Airways sized hole in their operation (following easyJet's purchase of the local owned franchise operator) British Airways has been limited to just one daily service from London, departing in the morning.

From Sunday the 26th October, it will switch to the afternoon:

Depart LGW 1330, Arrive GIB 1720
Depart GIB 1800, Arrive LGW 1950

Reflecting heavy fleet commitment it had earlier looked like the morning service might have to go red-eye for winter with a circa ~6am departure.

However the fears were not justified as BA have manged to rearrange their schedule to support the lucrative premium traffic on the route

(The Real) Operation Felix: Hitler's Plan to capture Gibraltar - by Joe Garcia

The title of this post has been prefixed with 'the real' because - utterly by chance - Operation Felix was referenced in the title of the unrelated previous post).

Operation Felix: Hitler's Plan to capture Gibraltar
by Joe Garcia
New and enlarged edition, 2008
Panorama Publications, Gibraltar




This new expanded edition of Joe Garcia's study of Operation Felix has just been published.

Not only have a lot of new archive documents been released since the original publication but also new finds in Gibraltar have been made. When this text was last edited, Stay Behind Cave - the plan to entomb a contingent of British soldiers in the event of a successful German invasion - had not yet been rediscovered.

The book focuses heavily on the logistical concerns faced by the Germans during their planning and the need to plan for an attack both with and without open support from 'officially neutral' facist Spain under General Franco.

Some knowledge of the local area and the surrounding countryside in Spain is certainly required though to really follow the events - a map would certainly not have gone amiss - if the book is to be enjoyed by a wider audience. Also the rate of change and redevelopment in Gibraltar itself needs to be factored in, particularly if you've not seen photographs of Gibraltar before the post war reclamation. The actual detail of the Gibraltar wartime story is rather underknow further affeild and I couldn't help thinking someone should repackage this excellent study for a wider audience.

However if you do have some background knowledge or can sufficiently pick things up as you go, it is a facinating read. [Not least for obvious land transport 'issues' that have continued to face Spain until almost this day.]

The book is priced at £9 and has a slightly larger print of text that would suitable for both advancing and younger eyes.

Book link on Panorama website.

Operation Felix - Google thinks we are in Germany

Are you in Gibraltar? Have you had Google offer you content from Germany yet? Or perhaps, quite out of the blue, another google site - such as blogger.com - has suddenly starting to speak to you German?

- Well its been happening for about a month now to some of us and as it hasn't sorted itself out, perhaps it is time we took a look.

GeoIP location is what has gone wrong here. Every machine on the internet has an IP address (a unique number) that says where it can be located. [This is what makes the internet work, the domain names are just the pretty bits sitting on top.] Websites then cross reference a visitor to their location and provide targeted adverts - well at least that is the theory.

It appears that at least some Gibraltar IP addresses are, as far as Google is concerned, in Germany.

Actually I can be more specific, Google seems quite confident they are in Frankfurt am Main.

Now IP addresses are all centrally allocated in big blocks to national country authorities and also entities such as universities, etc. The only problem is the world is running out of them, and in order to make room some rather generous older allocations need to be revisited.

That is most likely what has happened here. We have been given a block that used to be allocated to Germany.

The problem is certainly occurring for me as I type this, and I'm using Gibtelecom ADSL which has given me an IP address in the block: 217.65.48.*

According to the RIPE database this is within a block allocation to Gibraltar (occasionally you might cross the internet privately before entering it publicly in another country - but that's clearly NOT what's gone wrong here).

Concerned that this might affect lots of other sites, I've tested the Maxmind database (Maxmind are the biggest suppliers of this technology), however they have us set-up correctly, as do the bbc - who detect their UK users from other nonUK users.

At first I therefore though it might just be the main code at google.com to offer a localised version, and further that code might not get updated very frequently.

However it is also being used on their award wining visitor statistics program, Google Analytics. (The screen shot above comes from Google Analytics.).

Given the speed at which we are running out of type4 ip addresses, the need to review and reallocate blocks will only increase. It is therefore a pity that website are starting to make increasingly daft use of them.

The mobile phone company O2 in the UK is crazily using GeoIP to prevent nonUK users for even looking at their web shop (shop.o2.co.uk). The reason they give? - We don't delivery and can't sell to people outside the UK. What a daft reason, recently I was trying to advise a UK based relative on mobile phones, O2 lost a purchase because they would let me in to look are and advise someone else.

The futures exchange EURONEXT LIFFE has even more amazingly been using it to determine what information people get. Not what language they want to use, nor what information they want as the default - but what information is available to them full stop. It is hard to think of a more international business than financial markets.

At least this error makes a change from the websites who have correct GeoIP tables and know that we are in Gibraltar, but then have wrong country profiles and default to assume we should be spoken to in Spanish by default.

I don't know yet if it is affecting others outside of 217.65.48., but we will do more tests later.

Iberia flights Gibraltar-Madrid switch to evenings for the summer.

Iberia flights to Gibraltar Airport will switch to an evening schedule in advance of the coming summer season.



Since they began operating the route in late 2006 (following the Cordoba agreement where Spain agreed to lift some of her discriminatory air restrictions) Iberia flights have operated at lunch time.

But the schedule has been unpopular as it requires passengers to commit most of the day to travelling. From 2nd May 2008 flight times will switch to the evenings. This will enable people to remain at work/school on the day of their flight and also allow business travellers to make use of their flight day.

Old Schedule:
Depart MAD 1150, Arrive GIB 1300.
Return GIB 1350, Arrive MAD 1500.

New Schedule:
Depart MAD 1930, Arrive GIB 2040.
Return GIB 2130, Arrive MAD 2240.

According to Iberia's published schedule the first flight at the new times will be Friday 2nd May.

[Though there seem to be a few different start dates floating about, JimenaPulse gives May 20th (possibly a misprint for 2nd), and the iberia.com web 'timetable' lists an evening flight on 27th April - the same day as last lunch time flight, but this is also probably a simple error as tickets are not actually being sold for an evening flight on the 27th.]

There is no word on any increase on frequency from the present Fridays and Sundays.

When first launched the flights were daily, however lower demand led to them being reduced to just weekends for the winter. A element of the low demand can certainly be attributed to the midday flight times.

However if there is not the demand for a full A319 service daily, hopefully we can get Air Nostrum (who operate as 'Iberia Regional') to also fly the route.

Air Nostrum regularly receive high praise on all routes they operate (which include services to Italy and France and other European destinations.

Operating a single cabin for all passengers on most routes, called 'regional business class', they offer a better product than Iberia mainline themselves - who rather let down the standards of the OneWorld alliance by making people pay for refreshments on standard tickets.

Introducing daily evening flights to Madrid would also plug some of the present gap following the EasyJet take over of GB Airways.

The replacement British Airways service is currently limited to one flight a day due to BA aircraft shortage. As it is an early morning flight it prevents people flying into Gib doing a same day European connection.

An evening Madrid service would allow passengers who seek a business class service to still make same-day European connections inbound. (Outbound same day connections possible via BA in London.)

Free Bus Efficiency

The Gibraltar Women's Association are advocating free Bus travel in Gibraltar. A move that would of course help alleviate traffic congestion and parking problems and also be a step in the right direction environmentally.

However unfortunately they've qualify their thinking, saying that eligibility should be limited to local residents and verified by showing your ID card.

By continuing to have a paid system existing - albeit existing for a reduced number of people - we would continue to have the need for tickets, ticket machines, drivers to carry cash floats, and banking matters.

This means we'd get none of the benefits in efficiency that would come from going totally free, just a reduction in the number of people the payments system will be used by. Also, by having an identity check vs a payment, the speed of boarding doesn't improve.

Different routes will have different passenger make-up, but there are clearly three groups: Local residents, Non-resident locals (such as those who live in Spain but work in Gib), and tourists.

While only the residents will be tax payers, there are clear benefits from getting everyone on the bus - benefits for the whole of Gibraltar plc.

Either you have a subsidised bus service or you don't. However where we have chosen to limit our subsidy approach (at a mid point - either the present midpoint or the GWA proposal) is daft. To really enjoy the benefits, we must fully commit to the subsidised model.

Heathrow Airport offers a free fare zone in the immediate area - why? Because it recognises that making public buses free in the immediate (almost city-centre level hectic) area is the best way increase bus usage for people moving about the area and reduce congestion. The free services applies to everyone - staff, tourists, residents and all...

Unfortunatly in Gibraltar I expect all progress in the area to be protested by our militants-in-waiting - the Gibraltar Taxi Association. This time they must not be allowed to hold the wider interests of Gibraltar to ransom.

Their business is an A to B business. The Gibraltar Bus Company operates services from X to Z (via Y). It is the passengers job to get A>X and Y>B. This is not like for like business, no matter how much the GTA think they are the only people who are allowed to operate transport in Gibraltar.

I was going to post a link to the Gibraltar Bus Company website, but unfortunately they still haven't got anything on it (www.gibraltarbuscompany.gi). So please before you start ditch that domain and get www.bus.gi - it would be so much better.

Watching the Foreign Affairs Select Committee

BBC Parliament will today be screening the evidence session of the UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Select Committee session from Wednesday.


In this session Chief Minister Peter Caruana was invited to appear before them to update the members on Gibraltar matters.

The Chief Minister covered a large array of Gibraltar matters and was also quizzed by the committee on general overseas territories issues.

During this Mr Caruana referred the committee to a definative ruling in the House of Lords concerning the Quark Fishing case. Although it does not involve the Rock in any way, it provides a definative ruling confirming the role of the Queen as Sovereign and Head of State of each Overseas Territory directly - with no reliance on the relationship between that territory and the UK.

And also that legally the appointment of Governors as HMs representative is direct appointment by the crown and not the UK government in any respect - any advice from the Forign Secretary is given in their capacity as a member of her majesties Privy Council, and NOT as a member of the Government of the United Kingdom.

The session was repeatedly extended as it progressed, in the end running for 1 and half hours and only forced to stop as the committee's MPs were due in the Commons chamber for Prime Ministers Questions (PMQs) starting just 4 minutes later.

The session is shown on BBC Parliament at 6pm UK time (7pm Gibraltar time) and runs for 90 minutes.

It can also be watched as an on demand video stream for up to a month at the ParliamentLive.TV website, however this recording is sadly missing the opening remarks of the session.

Bowling and Ice Skating prices

The Kings Bastion leisure centre will be open 7 days a week, from 10am until midnight.

Prices for the Ice Skating and 10pin bowling are as follows:

Bowling:

From 10am to 6pm: £2.60 per person per game.
After 6pm: £3.60 per person per game.
Games for upto 12 people.

Children's mini bowling lanes are £1 per person.

Ice Skating:

Open from 11am until 11pm.

1 hour session, including skate hire, will cost:
£3 per person, before 6pm.
£4 per person, after 6pm.

King's Bastion Leisure Centre - just 1 pin left to go

The new King's Bastion Leisure Centre opened its doors today to the public for the first time.

While the Bowling Alley and Ice Skating Rink elements will be available for use from tomorrow - 1st March. The 2 screen cinema is still being kitted out and will follow later.

Chief Minister Peter Caruana described the facility as something to be proud of during the opening ceremony yesterday evening - before having a shot on one of the 14 adult bowling lanes.



In addition to the 14 adult lanes, there are 4 children's lanes in two of the arched caverns off to the side.

These also features games areas pool/snooker tables and an internet lounge:



The adult bowling has an free standing island bar behind it with the shoe facilities in yet more of the vaults of the historic bastion behind that.



Up stairs the ice rink is currently the most prominent section, however it is to be joined by the new 2 screen cinema very shortly.



The new structure sits in what would have been the open air courtyard of the historic bastion. The 12 million pound project has constructed a state of the art leisure centre without any damage to the historic structure itself.



At the upper level the new structure is linked to the interior of the thick walled bastion by an elevated walk way and mid air seating island standing on top of the bar in the bowling area.



Inside the fortified section there is a wine bar, and a non-alcoholic bar and kids disco area:



The ramparts and fortifications on the sides of the bastion remain open as terraced areas, with cafe facilities and remain in close proximity to the new cinemas and ice rink.

95,000 EUR not enough for gibraltar.net

The domain name "gibraltar.net" has attracted bids of up to 95,000 EUR under auction on domain after-market website sedo.

However that appears to be below the amount sought by the current owner and seller of the domain as the listing was marked as "reserve not met" through to the auction close. The reserve expressed only as a range - 50,000 to 199,999 EUR.

The auction follows the 2007 sale of the name "gibraltar.com" which sold for 360,000 USD when auctioned on sedo.

Airport Fees Finally Land

The Gibraltar Government have finally(!) announced the introduction of revised landing fees at Gibraltar Airport.

The fees, historically collected by the MoD will, following the 2007 agreement between the MoD and GoG, be collected AND set by the Government.

While Gibraltar will always have higher fees than bargain basement airports there was universal consensus that fees needed to come down.

The issue of fees was of course the cover used by Monarch for the cancellation of the Manchester route. Hopefully this will now be reinstated, as the route had a high yield and many would doubt whether even monarch expected to cancel it in their game of chicken over the fees.

The Governments press release is surprisingly light on the actual detail, given it is delayed (was originally expected before Christmas). However they have at least picked a sensible introduction date of the 30th March aviation season change.