Gibraltar Airport: Where Runway Meets Road (10 photos)

Gibraltar Airport is no ordinary airport -- it’s runway has a major public road crossing it meaning every time a plane is due to land or take-off the road is closed much like a railway level crossing.

The average time for an aircraft to land or depart is 10 minutes, so on busy days the road can be closed for over two hours.

There are plans for a major upgrade to the airport after the Córdoba Accord was signed by the United Kingdom, Spain and Gibraltar. This agreement ended a 17 year dispute that prevented civilian flights from all nations except the UK into Gibraltar Airport.

Take a look at this unusual road and runway in the picture gallery and video below.

Share On | Stumbleupon | Facebook | Reddit | del.icio.us | Digg

around the web

comments

• Kenny on June 19th, 2009 at 2:42 am

  I took a flight from this airport to London in 1995 and the road crossing the runway blew my mind. I have told many friends about this and now I have the video to prove I was not drunk.

• R Schloemer on June 22nd, 2009 at 7:58 pm

  I dunno, I went to Gibraltar in high school… and it’s safe. I don’t see what’s so strange except for it being a security hazard. The peninsula is just a half kilometer high spike in the ocean, where the hell else are they going to put it?

• Manyarna on June 24th, 2009 at 12:27 pm

  They were on about digging a tunnel under the runway for the cars etc. If they ever get round too it. Why Bother? The road was there long before they built the runway.

• Monty on September 29th, 2009 at 2:11 pm

  Perfectly safe, as appropriate security level is present.

  Also, where you say:
  “dispute that prevented civilian flights from all nations except the UK into Gibraltar Airport.”

  This is incorrect.

  All Spain did was block flights from/to Spain.

  Throught there were occasional flights to other destinations throught – charters to Malta and Finland regularly, also other places.
  And daily scheduled flights to Tangier in Morocco (North Africa) for much of the closed border period.

  The border (closed by Spains facist dictator General Franco) was reopened as a condition for Spainsh entry to the EU. However their air restrictions remained.

  Regardling civilian flights, the only constraint was no flights to/from spain, the lack of flights to places other than the UK simply represented insufficient demand for direct flights to such places.

  Even the Spain is suposedly a NATO ally, she continues to prohibit British Military aircraft overlfying her airspace enroute to Gibraltar, forcing a lengthly flight around spain for such military aircraft.

• ossy on November 1st, 2009 at 11:15 am

  Same thing here in Croatia on Zemunik runway in Zadar. the road is also Closed for traffic when plane is takinh off.

trackbacks

• Mantastic Links | Tasty Booze
• Gibraltar Airports Unusual Runway - Attuworld.com

speak your mind