The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that restrictions on British military aircraft entering Spanish airspace continue to apply to flights arriving at or departing from RAF Gibraltar, though officials say the measures have no operational impact.
Responding to questions from Liberal Democrat MP Helen Maguire, Defence Minister Al Carns said UK aircraft are “routed so as to avoid Spanish territorial airspace, in accordance with Spanish restrictions on UK military overflights.”
Carns added that “RAF Gibraltar continues to operate as a sovereign UK military airfield, and the current overflight ban by Spain does not impede our operational freedom with respect to aircraft movements.”
Asked whether the Defence Secretary had discussed the matter with his Spanish counterpart, Carns said that while the two meet regularly to discuss “a range of issues of shared strategic interest,” recent talks have not included overflight arrangements.
No assessment has been made of any financial cost arising from the continued rerouting of flights through other international flight regions, the minister said.
RAF Gibraltar is a key logistical and strategic hub for UK operations in the Mediterranean and North Africa, though tensions over airspace access have persisted between London and Madrid since the 1980s.
Why the hell has the UK awarded a Spanish ship builder any contracts for RFA vessels in that case?
Spain has been exempted from spending increases on defence .
Embarrassing that our Govt allows this
Perhaps because
(a) we’re not as petty as the Spanish government
(b) we weren’t prepared to ‘cut our nose off to spite our face’? Without the Navantia deal the RFA might not have gotten the much needed FSS ships.
I’m sure we can count on you to boycott holidays to Spain and all Spanish produce and goods?
Not a mattere of being petty – more a case of ‘wait a minute, these people are not friendly, do we really want to depend on them for anything if wehave alternatives’?
It’s pettiness on their part, the kind of populist pettiness that politicians know play well to voters of the stupid variety.
It’s good for appearances.
That’s the thing – they are being petty but it has potentially serious consequences and require a serious response. Sadly, voters of the stupid variety often elect governments of the stupid variety…
We already have a serious response, their names are Cutlass and Dagger
what Spanish goods?
Well from memory, on the high street you have, Desigual, Zara, H&M, Loewe, Massimo Dutti, Mango, Pull & Bear, Balenciaga, Santander, Seat, etc etc.
Though most items will be manufactured elsewhere, these are Spanish companies and that’s where the profits end up.
Presumably you’d like the RAF to remove the right wing from all its Typhoons and send them back to Spain?
I don’t recall being a customer of any of those companies.
Maybe you should ask the grown up who buys your clothes?
serrano ham is mighty tasty 🙂
I don’t holiday in Spain. Not since the 90s anyway. I sometimes drink Madri but it’s brewed in the UK. Bae and Babcock placed a proposal with assembly in Rosyth
Petty it may be but Spain is openly hostile to the UK over these flights and Gib in general so no, they should have been discounted.
Yes the Team U.K. bid, which aside from being the most expensive would have caused issues with dry-docking the carriers.
So why weren’t you boycotting Spain in the 90s? This isn’t a recent issue.
Well feel free to be petty back at the Spanish on our behalf.
So the uk bid may have been the most expensive but wouldn’t 30/60% of the wages paid to the workers who built them in uk yards wouldn’t that money then go back to HMRC in the form of tax and keep British jobs alive where as paying Spanish yard the money goes to the Spanish government besides if spains wrongs us we absolutely shouldn’t then give them contracts
It depends if you’re looking at things from the point of view of HM Treasury or the Ministry of Defence.
For the MoD, whichever is the cheaper bid is best, as the money raised by taxation of defence-related work doesn’t impact how much the money they have to spend. They get the same money regardless.
Obviously for the Treasury, the option that is cheapest net of tax income from it, is best.
Dry docking of the carriers would also mean that the MoD would prefer the Navantia bid.
I assume you’ll be insisting the RAF returns the right-ring of all our Typhoons, as they were made in Spain…
You know the ajax hull’s are built in Spain then shipped to Wales
Not to mention the right wing of Typhoons being built in Spain…
Don’t let the left wing hear that lol
I’m just waiting for someone to suggest replacing the right wing with a left one and attach it upside down..
Yeah and they shouldn’t have look at the mess they made of it
I can’t imagine it has a massive impact as the RAF barely use it. Nice bit of red meat to get everyone rilled up however it’s incredibly common for countries to ban military overflights and I’m sure the extremist in the Spanish parliament would love nothing better than a major response from us to escalate things.
Spanish air pace is sovereign Spanish territory just like Gibraltar is sovereign British territory and both sides are free to use it.
While Spain is in NATO it’s not exactly an ally and even if it’s was it has almost no military capability to bring to the table.
Perhaps time to ask Spain why they are still in NATO? And why do we award military contracts to companies in a country that is obviously not a friend?
What’s good for the Goose, just mention the 3 Spanish enclaves in north Africa and leave it there!
Borning old Chestnuts.
No impact operationally.
RAF Gibralter is rarely used.
Spain remain a European ally, if it really came down to it.
I still like the people, and the food!
Gibraltar remains a British asset, goid job too given it’s position and what it gives us.
Airspace restrictions or the Spanish Coast Guard sailing in don’t change that, it’s posturing.
Moving on.
Moving on.
I seriously doubt spain is a reliable ally. To the UK or NATO on the whole
Member of my family is Spanish. Agree Daniele, nice food and good people. Lets not forget Spain helped to escort our Carrier this year for example.
Yep completely agree if the Spanish government want to play a few essentially no impact games to keep popular with the voting segments let them.. it’s not like the various UK governments don’t do the same.. as long as it’s very low stakes it does not matter.. come a major European war Spain will end up protecting Gibraltar from any sneaky attack and will be part of NATO.. that is the important bit…
No surprise there really, it took us 9 hours to fly the long way round in a C130!
Headline: ‘UK confirms Spain overflight ban impact on Gibraltar ops’
First paragraph: ‘officials say the measures have no operational impact’
What a willfully misleading headline, what are you playing at?
To get the usual and expected reaction in the comment section?
It’s all getting a bit silly. Was on Youtube a few days ago and, in relation to the recent knife attack on a train, Sky News had a video up. The words in the Thumbnail pic we’re something along the lines of, “knife suspect released” but the video title was “Man detained for knife attack”. A lot of the comments were from people who hadn’t watched the video and so did not understand that, although a suspect had been released, THE suspect was still in custody. They knew what they were doing to get the rage clicks, for sure.
What other NATO member is so aggressive towards its allies, beyond Turkey re: Greece and Cyprus?
the US? re Canada, Greenland, tariffs, ditching Ukraine, 2003 BS war in Iraq, etc…. NATO has been great for US defence companies at the detriment of european industry
Why do we even bother to have this petty, sulky senors as an ‘ally’???
Nobody seems to have mentioned Spanish banks, telecommunication companies, power companies, etc! Spain is a member of NATO too. Never mind the preferred holiday destination for millions.
The Spanish Air Traffic Management system is so dependent on crap technology (SACTA), it is quite reassuring that it can support Gibraltar operations.
It’s all very silly really but from a Spanish point of view it’s a ‘we don’t want to facilitate operations’ and the British government accepting that. If the UK flew over Spain, apart from a lot of noise, Spain aren’t really going to shoot us down, very much like Spanish boats going into Gibraltar territorial waters, the UK makes noise but we’re not seriously going to shoot at them.
Used to like reading the comments on here for the information etc but now it seems to have turned into a child’s playground with people being rude to each other
I’m sorry but I would not allow Spanish border guards on our territory unless flights over Spanish territory were allowed. Again our useless politicians doing deals abroad in which we give in and get nowt in return. Chagos on a minor scale. Its alright saying it does not impact on operations, but it does impact the taxpayer in fuel cost just as the MOD as to make another 2 billion cut. Kiss could bye to 8 f26s ?probably 7 if we are lucky