GIBRALTAR has opened talks to use thousands of Spanish parking spaces to head off a flood of cars entering the Rock once new European flights launch at the airport from 2027.
A number of airlines have shown interest in launching new routes from Gibraltar to Spain, France, Holland and other parts of Europe, expected to start from next summer.
The extra flights are predicted to increase car numbers heading to the Rock, which is already adjusting to a rise in cross-border traffic since Gibraltar’s border with Spain opened to free movement of people and private vehicles on July 15.
Gibraltar’s transport minister, Dr John Cortes, said his team met officials from neighbouring La Linea to discuss using the towns surfeit of parking spots near the border.
“Just across the border there are 9,000 parking spaces,” he told the Gibraltar Chronicle.
The idea is to jointly promote those spaces, including some near La Linea’s football stadium, so passengers and tourists leave their cars in Spain, cross on foot, then use taxis, buses or walk once inside Gibraltar.
“We are looking at jointly promoting those parking spaces, diverting tourists and maybe users of the airport to there,” Cortes said.
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Officials are also weighing a shuttle service from La Linea to the border, along with joint signage and QR codes pointing drivers toward available public and private spaces, many of which already charge for parking.
A multi-storey car park on the site of Gibraltar airport’s own car park has not been ruled out either, though building one would mean losing existing spaces while work was under way.
“It’s early days, so we are not ruling out the fact that we may build a multi-storey on our side, but we’re also looking at the option of using the Spanish side for parking,” Cortes said.
“We have to think of it as across border because we cannot afford to have all these cars coming into Gibraltar, and therefore, we have to work with them to try,” Cortes said.
But the parking plan is far from finalised.
“Things have to be developed, have to be discussed, have to be planned, have to be funded, but we’re not sitting pretty,” Cortes said.
He pushed back on the idea that Gibraltar’s government has gone quiet on the issue simply because it has not issued a formal announcement.
“We’re doing all this work… but we’re not issuing press releases on every meeting I have,” he said.
“People can’t assume that if we don’t say we’re doing it, that we’re not doing it.”
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