A beautiful New Years day morning swept across the airport, La Linea, and The Rock of Gibraltar. Both towns were sleepy at the 10 AM hour, the border crossing was quiet, and a calm remained over the area. It was a brisk morning with temps in the early hours around 12C according to MeteoGib on Twitter.
At the airport runway and in town didn't seem to windy, but up at The Great Siege Tunnels there was a cool and strong enough breeze to make it feel slightly colder, and the shadow from The Rock didn't help.
The first landing of the morning was an Embraer Legacy 650E coming in from Malaga, landing at 10:52 AM. This little guy came screaming in over the brilliant blue waters of the Alboran Sea. The up/down flight was quick from Malaga to Gibraltar, being just a few minutes, flown by AIR HAMBURG. I particularly like the call sign on this one, D-ASAP, it lived up to its name by landing ASAP from Malaga.
Shortly after touching down and getting to the terminal, easyJet's Bristol flight landed at 10:58 AM. This A20N had a very smooth touchdown on runway 27 at Gibraltar Airport. Check out Ministry of Flight on YouTube for the full video. This aircraft would also be the very first to depart Gibraltar Airport for the year 2023.
Flight EZY8901 came in for landing about 12 minutes later. But instead of approaching from runway 27, this flight took a spin around The Rock and used runway 09 for landing. The wind on the ground looked still, at least that's the story the wind socks were telling. Once again, this aircraft touched down very smoothly, great work to the pilots.
Today's Manchester flight was delayed appearing to have departed Manchester late. This put its arrival time to Gibraltar Airport around 11:50 AM. This flight used runway 09 for landing and landed at 11:54 AM. Minutes before, flight EZY6300 departed, being the first commercial flight of the year to depart Gibraltar Airport.
While waiting, I noticed that both the LGW flight and Manchester flight appeared to be delayed at the terminal. The Bristol flight took off with no issues, and I wasn't holding my breath to watch the Embraer. Those private planes run on their own schedule.
Update: Upon further review and from GBC: "Two flights delayed on Sunday morning at Gibraltar Airport due to fuel bowser technical issues." I did notice the fuel truck next to the planes. As I was watching, I finally decided I didn't want to wait anymore. Now, its clear what happened.
After a bit more time, I noticed the Gatwick and Manchester flights still had the stairways attached to each aircraft, and only assumed there would be further delays. I was right as I didn't hear these two aircraft depart until almost 2 PM when I was already back at my office.
The first day of 2023 at Gibraltar Airport seemed to have been a success. Despite the delays for some flights, it was successful that all landed and departed. Last week the airport experienced several diversions of aircraft to Malaga after some incidents with the control tower and phone lines (see that article here). During the month of December more than a handful of flights had to be diverted to Malaga due to weather. So to have a day of nice smooth landings at Gibraltar is very welcome.
In my opinion, the first few landings and departures at Gibraltar Airport for 2023 seem to have been successful. Happy New Year from Ministry of Flight. I couldn't imagine a better way to bring in 2023 than up on The Rock of Gibraltar enjoying amazing views and watching airplanes.
Thanks for reading and be sure to take a look at some of my other articles reporting on and about the Gibraltar Airport. Check out this short documentary about the Road on the Runway at Gibraltar Airport. I am just a freelance writer, who loves Gibraltar Airport and taking videos of the planes. The views expressed in my articles are just my own.
Final note: A while back I had a short conversation with some runners who stopped at my location for a quick break. I chatted with them briefly and when I told her my channel name, she responded oh, is that with the government. My response was no, I made it up only to find out that everything else revolving around British and Gibraltar Government is named Ministry. For the record, this channel is not affiliated with any government entity, it's just a name I made up.
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