From Monday (November 23), travellers arriving at airports in the Balearics and the rest of Spain from countries classified as Covid risks will have to provide proof of a negative PCR test within 72 hours of travel.
This is a requirement for all travellers arriving from risk countries, regardless of nationality or place of residence. If proof of a test cannot be provided, travellers will have to undergo antigen tests and will also be liable to fines; the antigen testing in Spanish airports is not an alternative to the need to have had a PCR test prior to travel.
At Palma's Son Sant Joan Airport and at all other Spanish airports there will be control windows with signs for 'foreign health authority'. Personnel from Spain's exterior health service will be in charge of checking PCR documentation. Waiting areas have been set up for any travellers without this documentation and who will be given an antigen test. Other areas have been established for anyone testing positive, who will then be attended to by regional health authorities.
The health control form that travellers already need to fill in will now include a question about having had a negative PCR test. The document for this, either in Spanish or English, can be in paper or electronic form. There is a QR code for completing the form (www.spth.gob.es or the Spain Travel Health-SpTH app). In paper form, the original document can be submitted before boarding.
In the event that travellers with proof of a negative test show possible symptoms from the temperature and visual controls, they will be given a rapid antigen test.
The list of countries considered to be risks is updated every fortnight and can be consulted at www.mscbs.gob.es or www.spth.gob.es.
3 comments
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Will Palma airport also insist on residents from say Madrid and Barcelona have to provide proof of a negative test? Do Spanish nationals think UK airports should implement same for them when entering the U.K. If this continues into the summer it will make Mallorca too expensive for a lot of family holidays. Say 4x£150 (fee for test in UK) Then tourist tax.
To be clear - this isn’t just effecting families and friends travelling now - this is effecting future booking of holidays for the spring and summer. If the Balearic Islands does not change the policy and adopt the airport only test - next year’s season is dead in the water. Tourists will book alternative destinations where they feel welcome.
The unbelievable stupidity of this approach is that more than 95% of all infections have come from the mainland and no one from the mainland is being screened! The government in Madrid just lurches from one scheme to the next with no basis on science (always seems to be a money fine and discriminatory types of schemes) but seems to be increasingly anti Spanish/tourist in its approach. No plan for the reactivation of tourism and no plan how to manage the second wave of Covid. Does it seem a coincidence that since the mainland started to restrict travel infections have started to drop in the Balearics? Tourists have not been responsible for the terrible effects of this Virus but the inability of the central government to coordinate a response has led to this great country ranking as one of the worst hit in the world. What will happen with no testing of incoming travelers from the mainland as the holiday season approaches? Unfortunately not so difficult to imagine.