A Spanair aeroplane with 160 passengers aboard with destination Gran Canaria has crashed while attempting to take off at around 14.30. Media are reporting the accident at Barajas Terminal 4. The number of casualties is unknown, and deaths have not yet been announced. The aircraft is burning and it is thought an engine fire may have caused the accident. Emergency services have been activated and I believe Barajas is currently closed to air traffic. The aeroplane seems to correspond to Spanair flight JKK5022, scheduled to take off from Terminal 2 at 13:00 but delayed. The AENA website currently reports that the flight took off at 14:15.

Posted by : John Ross on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - 07:48 AM 308 reads

What on earth does Ryanair think it is doing? First it announces a "crackdown" on screenscraper sites like Bravofly or eDreams, then it takes no action, then it cancels Bravfly reservations and no-one else's, though it says it will but, don't worry, passengers will be compensated. Now it says it is up to the resellers to give grounded travellers their money back, and that its cancellations will take place from August 26th on. Meanwhile, the EU has told it in no uncertain terms, "Don't do this," and been ignored. Everyone is confused, most of all travellers and, I suspect, Ryanair itself, which is behaving like a headless chicken. Rubén Sanchez of Spanish consumer association Facua has called Ryanair the most "impresentable" company in Spain, and you need to know a little Spanish to appreciate just how serious an insult that is because it's a Spanish thing: impresentable is, for example, what you call the lout you wouldn't allow to marry your daughter if he were the last man on the face of the planet. I have no more to add for the moment, click here to leave a comment.

Posted by : John Ross on Friday, August 15, 2008 - 08:57 AM 229 reads

(Or should that be shakes-up?) British Airways and Iberia have announced their intention to merge, and the Spanish government is going to partially privatize AENA, the Spanish airport authority. I suppose it's two parts recession to one part higher fuel prices (and in the case of AENA, one part "about time, too"), but something is undoubtedly astir this week in the air travel world. Although the BA-Iberia story is the big one in media terms, the privatization of AENA is more likely to affect you as a visitor to Spain in the short to medium term, not only because the BA-Iberia merger will preserve the two separate brands, at least initially. Ask a Heathrow user if airport management affects the quality of travel.

Posted by : John Ross on Sunday, August 03, 2008 - 08:41 AM 325 reads

UK consumer magazine Which? has published its yearly Best Airlines report, the result of a postal survey of Which? members - the magazine says that 30,000 of them responded. Top-rated among the short-haul airlines was Bournemouth-based Palmair, closely followed by Germanwings, while the best long-haulers were oriental - Singapore Airlines, followed by India's Jet Airways. One of the nice things about the Which? report is that it lets us see which are the worst airlines as well, and this year Spain's Iberia is outstandingly badly rated, being third from the bottom on the list of short-haul airlines, and the uncontested worst long-haul airline, with a miserable Customer Satisfaction Score 27%, compared with the 32% of its nearest challenger for duffest llong-distance airline, Air India. Only Thomas Cook Airlines looks anything like as unpopular as Iberia.

Posted by : John Ross on Thursday, June 26, 2008 - 10:36 AM 743 reads

In yet another case of politicians' rejoicement being my gloom, the Civil Aviation Department of Spain's Ministry of Development has finally given the go-ahead for the new Corvera Airport in Murcia, and the Murcia government is gleeful. The new airport's promotors have always argued that San Javier Airport is saturated and that its joint operation by Spanish Airport Authority AENA and the Spanish Air Force is untenable. Corvera Airport will be the only private major airport in Spain and has been on the drawing board since 2000, the project having been in the Ministry of Development's in-tray for eight years. Spanish press reports say that, when told the news, Murcia president Ramón Luis Valcárcel exclaimed, "¡Por fin!" ("At Last!").

Posted by : John Ross on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 10:50 AM 829 reads