Two new regional carriers are planning to offer flights to the Spanish North African exclave of Melilla as part of plans to develop a strong presence in the European and North African markets. Meililla is one of two Spanish territories in North Africa and is located on the Mediterranean Sea, on the north coast of North Africa surrounded on three sides by Morocco. It is just 4.7 sq mi (12.3 km2) in size and is home to a population of around 75,000.
The main access point from Meililla to the Spanish mainland is via a ferry connection to Málaga and Almería, but an increasing number of air services are now making travel a lot easier. Air Nostrum is currently the sole airline providing scheduled links for national carrier Iberia to Almería, Granada, Madrid, Málaga and Valencia. It will also introduce new flights to Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca from July 23, but interestingly two proposed start-ups will also enter the fray in the next month.
The first of these is Helitt Líneas Aéreas which was due to take delivery this week of a former Alitalia Express ATR 72-200 to inaugurate flights to Meililla from Málaga during July. The company was established in 2009 to originally offer helicopter flights across the Straits of Gibraltar from the Andulusian town of Tarifa to Tangier in Morocco but is now diversifying into new markets.
It will be joined by another start-up, Melilla Airmel Lineas Aéreas which plans to commence flights on July 1. The carrier will operate under the simplified Airmel brand and plans flights between Málaga and Meililla as well as ad hoc charters around the Spanish market. The company has yet to receive its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) so it will use an ATR 72-200 under an ACMI deal with Danish Air Transport.
The Málaga – Meililla route is already served six times daily by Air Nostrum and the arrival of Helitt Líneas Aéreas and Airmel will significantly increase competition, with each planning up to three flights per day on the route. An estimated 213,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year, up 4.2 per cent on the previous year. Yields have already weakened in the past year with Air Nostrum’s average fares falling from $113 to $84 each way and more intense competition could result in these falling further.
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