Today, the spokesman for the Balearic government and Minister for Tourism, Iago Negueruela, defended “limits” at airports to control “load capacity” in the Balearics, but admitted that the region does not have the power to adopt decisions of this nature because central government manages the airports.
Negueruela recalled that all the parties in the coalition government have repeatedly called for co-management of the airports and stressed that “it would be important” to have a presence in AENA (Spanish airport authority) in the same way as we have in the Port Authority.
The minister acknowledged that it will be difficult to try to reach an agreement with the airlines similar to the one reached with the cruise lines to limit air traffic in Palma.
“It is easier to reach an agreement with the cruise companies because there are fewer of them, they are all members of an association and there is direct collaboration with the Port Authority,” he said.
Negueruela pointed out that in the case of flight limitations, any agreement with AENA would be much more complicated due to the large number of airlines that operate in and out of Palma. And in addition to AENA itself, there are other organisations that are affected by the regulation of slots, including Enaire, the air traffic control body.
The minister said that limiting flights would all be part of the plan to create a more sustainable tourism industry.
He highlighted the fact that the Balearic government is reducing the number of hotel beds, but warned that this will clash with the ever-increasing number of passengers because there may not be the capacity in hotels to accommodate them in the future.
“We do believe that we have to take measures to limit tourism and that is why we are acting within our capabilities,” said Negueruela.
“The airport has to be better organised and even the airlines are asking for it because of the chaos being caused a peak periods,” he said.
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