Seven Days

Another week, another story of winter flights
So, another week, another barrage of letters and of twists and turns as would befit a series of EastEnders live specials. Had they got the message? This was Sunday’s front-page question. Hundreds of emailed letters to the paper had given their message. More winter flights and especially from Scotland.
By Tuesday, these flights to Scotland (and also from) were a “step closer”. “An unexpected and welcome twist” had been taken, as Jason Moore pointed out in the Viewpoint. Aviation experts had estimated that direct weekly return winter flights would cost between 260 and 300 euros. It would be “like a community airline”.
Also on Tuesday, it was once more noted that the Més socialists/nationalists/environmentalists political grouping was calling for the Balearics to have its own airline, an idea that Andrew Ede pooh-poohed by pointing out that Més had only really been referring to inter-island flights and that the Més proposal to use public funds would almost certainly run up against EU disapproval (and that of others).
Nonetheless, on Wednesday, and in the spirit of Podemos (“we can”), “yes we can” was the message from a touristic triumvirate comprising PR man Doug Goodman, the managing director of Hotel Tres in Palma, Sven Rudow, and the president of the Majorca Tourist Board, Eduardo Gamero. “It is the winter we need to be pushing,” said Eduardo. The flight situation was difficult, he acknowledged, but was confident a solution could be found.
Adopting a rather different perspective, D.K. of Calvia in the letters was “staggered about the quality of the debate” and argued that the “airlines do not consider it financially viable to operate such routes” and that “emotions” were getting the better of people.
The debate ball was kept rolling on Thursday by half-a-dozen letters citing the logistical difficulties of travel to Majorca in winter, and then on Friday there was “another twist”.
This time it came from Scottish hotelier Brian Squires who considered the whole debate in reverse, as in the demand among Majorcans to visit Scotland in the winter. And when Saturday came, we were told, courtesy of the tourism minister (see below), that there had been a 12% growth in January tourists from Britain (without identifying the actual number). But this was taken as evidence of demand that could be met if only there were more than the handful of flights at present. Meanwhile, back in Albert Square ...