F2Pool Co-founder Wang Chun Shares Travel Experience on Social Media
Chun stated that on a flight to Melilla, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, over half of the passengers were dressed in uniforms resembling police attire; it was also announced on board that, unless it was a diplomatic flight, Melilla airport authorities would not issue departure permits. As a result, he checked out at 11 AM and rebooked a regular flight to Malaga while in a taxi to the airport. This information comes from passenger observations, not from a national no-fly order issued by the Spanish government.
Ceuta and Melilla border Morocco, and according to the Schengen accession protocol, departing for mainland Spain or other Schengen locations requires additional identity and document checks, meaning the enclave cannot be used as a stepping stone into the European free movement area. In late July 2026, Ceuta experienced a large-scale border crossing, estimated between 50,000 to 80,000 people, most of whom were subsequently sent back to Morocco, with still thousands stranded; Melilla had smaller-scale attempts during the same period. Italy, France, and others have increased checks on air and sea connections from Spain. The Spanish Foreign Ministry reiterated that departing from these two cities requires identity verification by national police.
Regular tickets from Melilla to the mainland are sold under the Iberia regional brand, actually operated by Air Nostrum, which then subcontracts to the Maltese company Mel Air. The aircraft type is ATR 72, with boarding from the rear door and seat numbers assigned from back to front. He sat in 2F, the last row by the window on the right side, and after takeoff, free coffee was served; the flight from Melilla to Malaga takes less than an hour. On September 16, he took the same system flight ib 2290 from Madrid to Melilla, with the aircraft registered as 9H-NCD, marking his 1211th flight.
After arriving in Malaga, he transferred to the Universal Aviation terminal and boarded a Pilatus PC-24 registered D-CSLS to Dublin. Due to several European leaders using Dublin Airport, the landing time was requested to be scheduled between official flights. The flight from Malaga to Dublin takes about three hours, marking his 29th entry into the Republic of Ireland. The private jet operates on a separate schedule and security channel from regular flights, not constrained by the ATR regional capacity, but still subject to peak time restrictions at the destination.
The market mechanism involves the redistribution of capacity after dual checks for departures from the enclave. The buyers are public officials, military, police, and travelers with valid documents who must leave the enclave; the sellers are the Iberia—Air Nostrum—Mel Air subcontracting chain, and fixed-base operators that can connect to private jets in Malaga. Funds remain in short-haul ticket sales and general aviation hourly fees. The beneficiaries are regional carriers that can still issue tickets and time slots; the pressured parties are passengers who treat Melilla as a transit point but are stuck at the second border check. The event was driven by increased security checks following the Ceuta incident, not by airlines suddenly halting flights.
Source: Public Information
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Melilla has a short runway, and only turboprop aircraft like the ATR can operate regularly. Iberia retains its brand on the booking page while outsourcing the aircraft and crew to a Maltese company, which is a standard cost structure for European regional airlines: the brand bears the ticket price and schedule, while the actual risk lies with the wet lease carrier. The Ceuta incident did not change this contract; it merely altered the passenger structure to half in uniforms and shifted the question of "can we take off" from a weather issue to a permit issue. The Schengen exception has never been a new invention; it just remains invisible most of the time.
The capital path splits into two. Regular flights consume Spain's domestic public service obligations and the travel of enclave residents; private jets cater to those willing to pay a premium for time slots at the same geographical point. Dublin's scheduling conflicts due to leaders' itineraries indicate that the bottleneck for high-end capacity lies in destination coordination, not on Malaga's runway. Travelers segment their day into three parts—enclave turboprop, domestic taxi, cross-border private jet—tying border checks, brand subcontracting, and schedule politics into the same log.
Analogies can be drawn to Gibraltar, Kaliningrad, and the U.S. Virgin Islands facing a second check to the mainland: territory is politically "domestic," yet personnel movement remains a checkpoint. In 2021, Ceuta experienced a similar surge of thousands, and after the scale amplified in 2026, Italy directly suspended some Schengen conveniences for Spain. The industry phase prioritizes control over connectivity: routes are still being sold, while permits are being tightened.
Structurally, this belongs to regulatory changes. The mechanism is: enclaves can allow people in, but do not automatically permit entry into the Schengen interior; the second border check separates "already in Spain" from "can go to mainland Europe." The rise of uniformed passengers transforms law enforcement capacity itself into flight loads. Outsourcing further outsources political risks to the brand while leaving operational risks to wet leases.
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The second border check determines whether the enclave counts as Europe.
The brand is on the booking page, while the aircraft is registered in another country.
When time slots are more expensive than flight duration, leaders' itineraries take precedence.