When should I arrive for my Gibraltar airport flight?

QI’m finding it hard to get confirmation about when I need to reach the airport in Gibraltar for my flight home to Manchester. We are flying out to Gibraltar en route to southern Spain and coming back the same way. The departure time from Gibraltar is 11am – but how many hours before that do we need to be at the airport?

Amy B

A Lucky you: Gibraltar is just about my favourite airport anywhere. The runway of this British Overseas Territory occupies reclaimed land stretching either side of the isthmus connecting Gibraltar to the rest of the Iberian peninsula. It is one airport where I relish arriving early. From the big picture windows in the departure lounge of the modern airport terminal, you look across at the mighty Rock – with the occasional take-off and landing to enhance the view still further.

Having said that, Gibraltar is also one of those low-stress airports where walking distances are short and procedures swift. On a good day (which they mostly are), you could get from the front door to the cafe in the departure lounge in five minutes flat – at least with cabin baggage only. If you don’t need to check luggage into the hold, arriving one hour before departure should be quite sufficient. With bags to check in, I would add another half-hour just to be on the safe side. And because Spanish border formalities can be slow in the mornings, allow 30 minutes to get the few hundred metres from the frontier with Spain to the airport. So plan to reach the border at 9am, but I am fairly confident you will be shopping in duty-free or drinking coffee half an hour after that.

One more piece of advice: track your inbound flight. Gibraltar is a “category C” airport, requiring additional training for pilots because of its unique position and tricky landing approach. The local geography and meteorology mean flight diversions of inbound aircraft are far from rare. Usually they touch down in Malaga, and either wait for the Gibraltar weather to improve and then fly on, or arrange coaches for passengers. So be prepared for possible disarray.

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Q I have a question about the Ghic health card. I have applied for one but what happens if it doesn’t turn up before I go to Italy?

Jack S

A British travellers to the European Union – as well as Switzerland and Norway – are entitled to urgent medical treatment on the same basis as people who live in those countries. The British government defines the right as “healthcare that cannot reasonably wait until you come back to the UK”. Typically this means care for free or at a much-reduced rate, sometimes with nominal extra charges for hospital meals and the like. So it is an extremely valuable benefit.

To qualify, you should ideally produce a valid European Health Insurance Card (Ehic) or UK Global Health Insurance Card (Ghic). The Ehic was issued while the UK was in the European Union, and any existing card is valid until its expiry date. You may possibly have an Ehic that is in date for your trip, in which case there is no problem. But if that is not the case, and you wait in vain for a Ghic to arrive before you depart, do not fret.

The Ehic or Ghic is the most convenient way to demonstrate your entitlement to treatment – but there is an equally valid alternative, should you fall ill. You, or someone on your behalf, should call NHS Overseas Healthcare Services on +44 191 218 1999 and ask for a “Provisional Replacement Certificate” (PRC) to be emailed to the hospital. This assures recompense by the UK government for the cost of your treatment.

In practice, hospitals in the EU will treat first and ask questions later, so do not hesitate to seek care if you need it. Travel insurers typically require British travellers to Europe to carry an Ehic or Ghic and seek care in public hospitals; this is a reasonable request since it helps them keep a lid on claims. But so long as you use the PRC route, I would not expect any problem claiming for extra expenses that you may incur.

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Q We took off from Malaga on time but were rerouted to Madrid due to a medical emergency. We waited on the ground for more than three hours, just sitting on the plane, before we finally continued with the flight home and arrived over three hours late. Are we entitled to compensation?

Rachael B

A You and the other passengers experienced a frustrating delay. But I cannot see any grounds for compensation. The captain will have made a decision in what he or she saw as the best interests of the poorly passenger: to land as soon as possible at a location where medical help was immediately available.

Such medical diversions often involve a long wait on the ground: the patient needs to be assessed and, usually, taken away for treatment; their luggage, and that of any passengers travelling with them who decides to leave the aircraft, must be removed. The crew will have to deal with lots of paperwork. And more fuel must be taken on (and paid for, if the airline does not normally operate from the diversion airport).

The whole incident is likely to have cost the airline upwards of £10,000. It could have been worse. Had the crew run “out of hours” as a result of the diversion, you might all have had to be accommodated overnight, at the airline’s expense. What about the disruption and extra costs that you incurred? European air passengers’ rights rules require compensation to be paid for delays of three hours or more, except when “extraordinary circumstances” were responsible. Airlines will always claim this exemption in the case of medical diversions.

Over the years, various courts have made some bizarre decisions about airline passengers’ rights. (I think it is barmy that a three-hour delay in arrival is regarded as causing the same inconvenience as a flight cancellation, for example.) Conceivably, someone might test whether delays caused by medical emergencies qualify for cash compensation. But I would be dismayed if airlines had to pay out in such cases and put pressure on pilots not to divert during a medical emergency.

If you incurred significant costs as a result of the delay, you might be able to claim from your travel insurer. But otherwise, all I can suggest is that you put this down to experience.

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