Your Spanish Property Near an Airport...Really?

I read an interesting article a few weeks ago, (I wish I could remember where!). It was in one of the Sunday newspapers and it was telling people that they should buy property in the Spanish countryside, away from the busy coastal areas. This was apparently where people will now be able to find bargains.

Whilst I don't disagree with the article in principle it failed to consider why most people have a holiday home in Spain. Most people, in my opinion, simply want a safe, "lock up and go" property that is within 45 minutes drive of a useful airport. Somewhere they can fly to on a Thursday night or Friday morning and fly home again from on a Sunday on Monday. Somewhere easy to rent and somewhere easy for their friends and family to get to.

Of course there are many other factors to consider, kids, beaches, shops, facilities and for the golfers, golf courses but on the whole people have come to expect their holiday home to be just that, a home from home. Not a 12 hour battle through single lane dirt tracks and poorly sign posted roads.

Having recently built a website that focuses on the key tourist and business Airports in Spain I wanted to also consider what implications the different airports should have in the decision making process of a Spanish holiday home buyer.

In total there are around 47 different airports in Spain. Of these only between 20 and 25 of them receive any kind of regular flights from the UK. Surprisingly there are also around 25 different airports in the UK that are now offering flights to Spain.

The airports receiving the most flights from the UK throughout the year, (excluding Madrid Airport) are Malaga Airport, Alicante Airport and Palma Airport.

The number of flights to Malaga, Alicante and Palma throughout the year is simply staggering. The main "Low cost" airlines such as Jet2.com, Monarch, British Airways, Easyjet, Mytravellite, Bmibaby, Flybe and the new comer Thomsonfly, all fly to these three airports from various places throughout the UK.

If you are seriously considering buying a holiday home then my recommendation would be to buy near one of these main airports.

Why? because many of the other airports such as Jerez Airport, Reus Airport, Girona Airport, Ibiza Airport, Menorca Airport, Granada Airport and Seville Airport rely on flights from just one or two airlines. If these companies run into trouble or simply have a change of policy then the flights within 45 minutes of your holiday home may cease to exist.

Girona could be the one exception to the list above as it is one of Ryanair main European hubs and receives Ryanair flights from 21 different European Airports.

The Canary Islands also provides its own interesting debate. Gran Canaria airport is the fifth busiest airport in Spain and receives around 9.5 million passengers per year .Tenerife south Airport isn't far behind and Lanzarote Airport, Fuerteventura Airport and Tenerife north Airport are still busy airports.

The problem with the Canary islands is that the bulk of the flights are via Charter operators and companies such as Easyjet and Flybe do not yet offer any routes to these airports. Jet2, the Leeds based airline is the rare exception and has just introduced scheduled flights to Tenerife from Leeds Bradford.

Charter flights aren't a problem it s just that you generally have less flexibility in deciding when and at what times you can fly and on what days you can return.

I suppose my second line of de fence would be to buy near Jerez, Rues, Girona, Granada or Seville Airport.

Jerez Airport is only a 30 minute drive south of Seville and about 2 hours to the west of Malaga. You can even drive to the Costa de Luz in between 1 and 2 hours from Faro Airport in Portugal.

Reus is a busy charter airport so if Ryanair stop flying there for any reason you have other options available. Reus is also only a 75 minute drive from Barcelona Airport.

Girona is about 90 minutes to the north of Barcelona but the whole area along the Costa Brava and even South west France can also easily be reached from Perpignan, Carcasonne and at a stretch Nimes.

Granada is the last wildcard, it is at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains and within a 45 minute drive of Europe's southern most ski resort. With this in mind both Ryanair and Monarch have started to offer flights to Granada. Its unlikely that both airlines will have a change of heart but if they do then Malaga Airport is about 90 minutes to the south Almeria Airport is under 200 kms way.

So if your thinking of buying a holiday home with the money you are just about to transfer into your Sipps Pension, (you could buy some really expensive diamond earrings instead!) then be sure to research how regular the flights are from your nearest airport and what the alternatives are on offer if that routes stops.

----------------------

Want to contribure your own article about life in or moving to Spain?  Click here to get started!  We'd love to hear about your experiences.