The Balearic government is demanding that it has a greater say in decisions that affect Son Sant Joan Airport and has once more stated a claim for co-management of the airport.
Spokesperson Pilar Costa said on Friday that the government opposes any expansion of the airport that involves more land and greater capacity, although it understands that neither of these are being planned by the airports authority Aena. Transport minister Marc Pons will be meeting Aena representatives on Thursday.
While the government appears to be satisfied by Aena's intentions, this is not the case in other quarters. Palma councillor and the coordinator for Més in Majorca, Antoni Noguera, says that he doesn't have much confidence in there not being an increase in capacity. In his view the Aena project is "aberrant". The airport will get bigger, "there will be more contamination, more planes and more cars".
Noguera notes that PSOE and Podemos, the Més partners in the Balearics pact of government, have a "direct link" with the Spanish government and should be calling on the government to act responsibly (the government is a majority shareholder in Aena). "We (Més) will not force a crisis over what is a matter for Madrid, but we will be reminding our partners who is in government there."
Palma's mayor, José Hila (PSOE), says that he is in favour of work that improves the airport but that he is against an increase in the number of flights in the summer. "We have no wish for there to be more people in August and we don't believe that more summer flights are necessary; the winter is another matter."
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