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Girona Airport In A Nutshell
As Gerona Airport is situated on the Costa Brava, it is an important transport hub for tourism in north-east Spain with over 49,000 flights being handled and over 5.5 million passengers passing through the airport in 2008. It is a major hub for the budget airline Ryanair who are the main provider for flights to Gerona Airport from the UK and Ireland. There are around 19 UK airports that offer flights to Gerona and from Ireland you can fly to Gerona from Dublin and Shannon. During the summer season of 2009 there were a total of 64 scheduled routes operated by 6 airlines which saw the addition of 8 new destinations including Ibiza, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Seville, Leeds, London-Gatwick, Memmingen and Västerås, all of these operated by Ryanair. In addition, 20 airlines will operate charter flights out of Girona-Costa Brava Airport to 29 different destinations. Most notably, these include new destinations such as, Eindhoven, Edinburgh, Munich, Bologna, Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar and Nador. There are 33 check in desks for Departures at Gerona Airport which are handled on the ground floor, whilst boarding for both domestic and international flights takes place on the first floor. There are 11 gates at Gerona Airport and a boarding gate on the ground floor which is generally only used during peak seasons. There is a Food Gallery cafeteria in the public area of the departures hall, on the right as you walk in where a coffee costs around €1.40 and a sandwich will set you back approximately €4.00. A a new shop has recently opened at Gerona Airport where you will find a large selection of all national and foreign newspapers, in addition to the latest books, stationery, photographic material, batteries, sweets, etc. Gerona Airport has recently installed 4 multimedia terminals for access to the Internet, e-mail, chats, web cam and card readers. From here passengers can complete formalities with the airlines through their respective websites. 2 terminals have been installed in the arrivals lobby within the public area on the ground floor and the other 2 are in the boarding lounge within the passenger only zone on the first floor. The airport also offers a luggage protection service and there is a machine available in the check-in lobby to wrap your suitcases in plastic. Once you have cleared the security check point you will enter the departures lounge where you can grab a bite to eat or get something to drink in one of the restaurants or cafeterias. McDonald's has recently just opened just a few metres from boarding gate 11 so you can enjoy a varied meal or a freshly made hamburger without having to worry about missing your flight. There is also some shops here if you want to do some last minute shopping before your flight leaves. Gerona Airport arrivals are also located on the ground floor with a small arrivals hall. The majority of the corresponding car hire desks which include Avis, Europcar, Goldcar, Hertz and National Atesa are located to your left as soon as you exit the baggage reclaim area, Auriga Crown is situated to your right at the very far end of the arrivals hall. In the connecting walkway between arrivals and departures you will find an excellent tourist information desk with plenty of details on the area and in particular Gerona city. Immediately outside the terminal building is where the taxi ranks are located, head right for the bus stops which are around 50 metres down the road. As many people use Gerona Airport as an alternative airport for Barcelona Airport which is 90km, bus services at Gerona Airport have been increased due to the high demand from Ryanair passengers wanting to get into the city centre of Barcelona which is a journey of just over an hour depending on traffic. A single fare to Barcelona is 12.00 euros and 21.00 euros for a return. The bus timetables sensibly tend to coincide with the flight arrivals and departures where each flight will have a recommended time to get the bus back from Barcelona to Gerona Airport as to allow plenty of time to check in etc. The bus service from the airport into Gerona city centre runs from 4.30 in the morning until 30 minutes past midnight and is a journey of around 25 minutes. A single fare costs €2.15 and a return €4.10. Many other popular destinations can be reached by bus from the airport including a large number of locations within the Costa brava and even Perpignan which is just over the border into southern France. Hiring a car at Gerona Airport is an excellent way to get around and you will be able to explore the area very easily indeed as there are very good roads which connect Gerona Airport to major tourist destinations. The city of Barcelona is just a 1 hour drive away and the beautiful coastal towns of Lloret de Mar, Tossa de Mar, Blanes and Palamos are all within a 30 to 40 minute drive. Exiting the airport by car is very straightforward as you will immediately approach a roundabout with all major directions off the first exit on your right. All roads are very well signposted with clear directions to the national roads and AP 7 toll road. When you are returning to Gerona Airport to drop off your hire car simply follow the car hire return signs that will take you around the front of the Terminal Building and straight into the car hire car parks. If you are picking someone up at Gerona Airport or if you are flying out from Gerona Airport and need to park your car there, there are presently 3,400 parking spaces for passengers which are distributed into two areas. The first is P1 (with two buildings, P1A and P1B). Due to the construction of the new P3 car park, the public car park payment office has moved to a provisional hut in building P1B. To make payment easier for passengers, two automatic payment machines have been installed in the main entrances of buildings P1A and P1B. The second area is P4 and in order to provide sufficient public parking spaces the airport has opened the surface P4 car park with approximately 2,000 spaces. It is located in the southern part of the airport grounds, past the terminal building and the coach parking area. There is a new payment hut equipped with 3 automatic payment machines next to the P4 car park. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com The author of this article is Roberto Rodriguez who specialises in writing airport guides including Girona Airport which contains detailed information on flights to Girona and Girona Airport car hire. |
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