More than three months after the opening of the much lauded 2 million euro Orihuela Costa Emergency centre, the building is already being called a ‘white elephant’ as, during the height of the summer season, when it’s promised services were most in demand, the facilities continue to operate at half throttle, in what community groups are already calling ‘a sham’.

We report on the team of falconers who, with their six birds, are responsible for clearing the Alicante airport runway of birds during critical landing and take-off manoeuvres and we have the dates on which air travel should be avoided in September and December because of airport strikes at Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Seville, Palma de Mallora and of course Elche-Alicante.