FREE COPY INSIDE THE NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHERN SPAIN A good start too the season forr Official market leader Audited by PGD/OJD local golfers March 15th to 21st 2019 www.surinenglish.com Azahara Muñoz, Miguel News 2 Food & Drink 45 Ángel Jiménez and Comment 23 Sport 48 more in this month’s Lifestyle 24 My Home 53 Health & Beauty 34 Classified 57 Costa del Golf in English What To Do 40 Time Out 62 A HUNDRED YEARS FLYING INTO MALAGA The airport has been celebrating the centenary of the first landing on the current site P2&3 A commercial flight from Liverpool was greeted with a water salute exactly a hundred years after the first landing. :: ÑITO SALAS INTERVIEW British man jailed “At first it felt like without bail after his wife, 58, was found dead Chaotic Commons the end of the with more than ten stab world, but now I wounds at their home in voting drags out the can laugh about it” Estepona P5 Get right inside the Sunflowers and the agony for Brits in Spain Starry Night at the new multimedia show Van Gogh Alive in Malaga As the UK parliament votes to ask for an extension of until June P40 article 50, Costa residents express their frustration and Sarah Almagro, in Marbella. :: J-L Malaga and the Costa del Sol prepare to go green Mijas town hall announces a Brexit information office Sarah Almagro talks of the this Sunday as residents of illness that took her hands all nationalities join the After a week of crucial voting in the article 50, although this could be a and feet and the warmth of Irish for their St Patrick’s P34 House of Commons, residents in the delay of three months or even longer. the local community P32 UK and the rest of the EU were still As May plans to put her With- Day celebrations unclear on Thursday evening as to drawal Agreement to the Commons when, if or how Brexit will take one last time next week, British resi- place. Tuesday’s vote that rejected dents in Spain express their frustra- prime minister Theresa May’s With- tion, on one hand, and relief, on the drawal Agreement a second time, other, that the Spanish government led to the vote on Wednesday in has passed legislation to protect their which the option of leaving with- rights whatever happens. out a deal was also rejected. Meanwhile Mijas town hall has On Thursday MPs voted in favour announced the opening of a munici- of asking the EU for an extension to Theresa May on Thursday. :: EFE pal Brexit information office. P10 2 March 15th to 21st 2019 NEWS SUR IN ENGLISH Malaga Airport celebrates 100 years with small plane retracing the route of the first arrival The airport started life in The crew were welcomed 1919 as part of a by an arch of water from primitive airmail service two fire engines and from France to Africa; a friends and relatives on flight from Liverpool the apron arriving at the same time a century later joined in two people on board, Pierre the celebrations Latècoére and Henri Lemaitre, set off to bring the mail to the French protectorate of Morocco by air for :: FERNANDO TORRES / NEIL the first time. The airmail route in- HESKETH volved departing from Toulouse and MALAGA. The two planes were stopping in Spain; first in Barcelona, very different. One, a locally owned followed by Alicante (although in small, private plane completing the the first trip the plane stopped in final stage of a four-day journey Castellón instead), then Malaga. Af- from southern France. The other, ter the refuel it continued on via a scheduled Easyjet Airbus with Rabat to Casablanca. 151 excited passengers from Liver- Repeating the same journey last pool. Both flew into Malaga Air- week in a Piper Warrior III were Ig- port just before 10.30am last Sun- The early-morning flight from Liverpool arrived exactly one hundred years later as well. :: ÑITO SALAS nacio Gil and Francisco Cuevas of day and those on board helped the Real AeroClub de Málaga. They write a little more of the history had set off from the club’s Vélez- of the Costa del Sol. Málaga base for Toulouse several Last weekend was the hundredth days earlier to get ready and flew anniversary of the first flight into back along the same route as a cen- Malaga airport, except it was far tury before into Malaga. They were from being an operating airport at accompanied in the sky by two small the time. Instead, the two crew on planes from the Latècoére Founda- the first arrival on 9 March 1919 tion, which maintains the legacy of chose at random from the air a flat the French air pioneers today. piece of farmland in among the sug- arcane plantations alongside the Welcomed by the fire crew single-carriageway road from The crew from the three small Malaga to Cadiz. planes, sporting Spanish and French It was the ideal place to refuel on flags, were welcomed to Malaga Air- a pioneering airmail route from Tou- port with an arch of water from two louse to Casablanca, Morocco. Finca fire engines and friends and rela- El Rompedizo was the name of the tives applauding them on the apron. farm, and part of the sprawl of mod- The plan was to arrive at 10.30am ern Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport last Sunday, 100 years to the min- covers the same site today. It is the ute, but favourable winds saw then oldest airport in Spain still operat- touch down at 10.11am. ing on the same site. Pedro Cuevas, brother of Fran- The 1919 journey from Europe to cisco said, “It’s been a real effort to Africa in a Samson biplane with no organise it all and the trip wasn’t enclosed cockpit was revolutionary straightforward; they’ve had trou- in its day, only a few months after ble with the weather... crossing the the end of the First World War. The The recreation of the first arrival last Sunday. :: ÑITO SALAS Map on an anniversary first-day cover. :: SUR Pyrennes isn’t easy.” March 15th to 21st 2019 NEWS 3 SUR IN ENGLISH A CENTURY FLIES BY 9 March 1919. At 10.30am Pi- erre Latècoére and Henri Lemaitre Passenger numbers shoot up spot from their biplane an ideal piece of farmland to land on in Malaga, en route to Morocco. almost 10 per cent in February Mario Mirma, the president of Airmail route. A pioneering air- the national philatelic association, mail route from Europe to Africa Malaga Airport handled which was one of several organi- starts and Malaga airport is born. over one million sations supporting the initiative passengers last month and which issued a special com- 9 March 2019. A Piper Warrior memorative cover, said, “Nowa- III, two other light aircraft and an when there were over days express mail relies on aircraft, Easyjet Airbus A319 from Liver- 8,000 plane arrivals but back then it was a complete pool mark the anniversary. and departures adventure.” The lucky passengers on the Easyjet flight from Liverpool ar- Fortunately the passengers had :: SUR riving at the same time were also been forewarned, to avoid any shock MALAGA. Malaga-Costa del Sol welcomed by the water jets and on seeing fire engines waiting. Airport recorded 1,052,194 pas- dignitariesaries from the airport.airpo Director of Malaga Airport, Sal- sengers arriving or departing in vador Merino, said, “A hundred February, which was a rise of 9.2 years flies by. What stands out is per cent on the same month the howho much has changed over that previous year. The increase was time.time Last year we reached 19 mil- spread across passengers arriving lion passengersp and we continue from other parts of Spain and to breakbr records.” from international airports. SpeakingSp to SUR earlier in According to data from Aena, the weekw from Toulouse be- the airport-operating company, fore beginning the com- and released on Tuesday, the num- International and national passenger numbers increased. :: M. F. memorativemem flight back to ber of planes entering or leaving Malaga,Mala Francisco Cuevas also went up, by 6.1 per cent to a more people from Britain, or have used Malaga’s airport, an in- explainedexpl how the anniver- total of 8,140. 273,997 passengers in total. crease of 8.8 per cent. sary event idea took shape. Of the million-plus passenger German passengers were the Malaga Airport is the third busi- “One“O day, delving into movements, 13.2 per cent were next biggest group at 94,089. est on the Spanish mainland, af- aviationaviat history, I came across travelling to or from other parts The busiest day of the month ter Madrid and Barcelona, and the the storys of the first flight to of Spain. was Saturday 23 February, coin- main gateway into Andalucía as the city,c and as I carried on in- The United Kingdom was, as ciding with half term in the UK, well as the Costa del Sol. Flashback to first airmail vestigating,vesti I convinced myself usual, top of the list of interna- with 48,524 passengers. After Malaga, Seville is the sec- delivery. :: SUR ARCHIVE thattha we had to commemorate that tional countries passengers were Taking into account both Janu- ond busiest airport in Andalucía, journey;j it’s something befitting arriving from or travelling to. In ary and February, so far this year, but with half the passenger for Malaga and its airport”.