Palma airport figures finally pick up

Palma's Son Sant Joan airport was the third busiest in Spain last month with increase in both air and passenger traffic suggesting that winter tourism may be picking up. Compared to November last year, air traffic was up 8.3 per cent and passenger numbers 2.3 per cent with Palma handling 720.157 travellers. Madrid and Barcelona were the busiest Spain airports last month, but despite the winter-sun season in the Canaries, Palma airport was busier that Gran Canaria, handling nearly 1'000 more air passengers In total, last month alone, Spain's airports handled 9.8 million passengers. However, despite the sudden pick up in airport traffic after a year of steady decline, the Balearics has been knocked off the top spot as Spain's number one holiday destination by Cataluña. The latter was visited by 10.528.488 tourists between January and October, over one million more than the 9.319.881 people who came to the Balearics during the first ten months of the year and significantly more than the 8.690.561 who holidayed in the Canary Isles. There has also been a four per cent rise in the number of foreigners coming to Spain this year.