Son Sant Joan Airport, Palma | Ultima Hora

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AENA has been forced to rethink its plans to extend Son Sant Joan Airport in Palma, after the Balearic Environment Commission representatives threatened to publish an unfavourable environmental evaluation of the project.

AENA President, Antoni Alorda, has requested in writing that the proposals be withdrawn from the agenda "in order to reformulate the project,” and called for a new meeting in the coming weeks.

This latest move appears to underline statements made by the Director of Son Sant Joan last week.

The extension and remodelling project of the terminal area “could have a significant environmental impact,” so the Balearic Environment Commission’s Technical Report considered that the Environmental Evaluation of the project would be a waste of time. The proposal to reject AENA's plan for Son Sant Joan will be voted on by a Technical Commission.

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The report concludes that there are a number of aspects that Enaire’s Environmental Impact Study did not take into account.

It refers to synergies with other projects that will allow the number of air operations to be increased; an annual increase of operations without evaluating and quantifying saturation during the summer months and the access and mobility problems that would be generated by an increase in the number of car parks and airport users.

It also criticised the fact that although an analysis of the carrying capacity of the island as a whole was required, no information about that was contained in the document, nor does it include a mobility plan promoting the use of public transport “which would be needed to solve traffic congestion problems."

The Technical Environmental Report also indicated that "a sustainable development model is followed, with the continued growth of infrastructure to enable more air traffic to be added.”