Scores of people spent the night at Palma airport. | Última hora

Humphrey CarterPalma16/08/2024 10:27
TW
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Palma airport is still suffering from the impact the storm caused over the last two days in Mallorca. Numerous flights were cancelled and delayed on Wednesday and Thursday and Ryanair is calling for explanations. It released a statement apologising to its passengers: Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, (15 Aug) has apologised to its passengers for the excessive delays and cancellations at Palma de Mallorca following the nonsensical decision by Spanish Air Traffic Control (ATC) to block inbound aircraft from landing this morning due to “weather”, which makes no sense given there were no weather issues in Palma this morning as confirmed by the fact that flights departing Palma were allowed to continue as normal. Passengers were allowed to leave Palma de Mallorca but those coming on holiday were not allowed to arrive.

Ryanair has been unable to contact the Head of Spanish ATC this morning to reverse this nonsensical decision and now calls on the Spanish Minister of Transport to explain why Palma de Mallorca was closed for arriving passengers due to non-existent weather issues.”

Ryanair’s Chief Ops Officer, Neal McMahon said: “This is the latest example of terrible Air Traffic Control performance this summer, which has caused repeated and unnecessary disruption to passengers. Ryanair once again calls on Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, to reform the shambolic ATC services.”

Scores of travellers were forced to spend the night from Thursday to Friday at the airport. Some of them used all the equipment at their disposal and even used the tents they have used during their holidays in Mallorca; others have resorted to towels or clothes to simulate pillows.

Airport authority Aena sources have assured that Palma airport is gradually returning to normal, although there are still “delays and some occasional cancellations, which is normal, being in high season and after what has happened over the last two days”.

They have also justified that “quite a few flights were cancelled, plus those of the previous day, and the airlines are still relocating all these passengers, according to their own operations”.
However, they insisted that “all flights today are departing and arriving normally”. Unfortunately, passengers do not have the right to claim compensation from the airlines as the cancellations or delays are for reasons beyond their control.