Planes at Palma Airport.

Planes at Palma Airport. | J. L. Ruiz Collado

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterBalearic Islands-International21/04/2022 08:21
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European airlines have 44.4 million seats booked this summer which is 10.6% more than in 2019 according to the President of the Association of Air Lines, Javier Gándara and most of the tourists are from the UK and Germany.

"The Islands will lead the growth and recovery of tourism in Spain this summer due to the great demand for travel in the main European source markets," he said. Gándara also pointed out that demand for Balearic flights is at pre-pandemic levels and is much higher than other Spanish holiday hotspots.

ALA has again called for police reinforcements at passport control at airports with a high influx of tourists from the United Kingdom, such as Palma and Ibiza.

“Congestion translates into harm for national and international passengers and causes delays and missed flights and connections,” said Gándara. “At Easter, more than 3,000 people missed their connecting flights at Madrid-Barajas because of long waits and Brexit border filters and that could also happen in the Balearic Islands."

Air Traffic Control

Gándara says he’s worried about the new air traffic control system being installed in France, which could force Balearic flights to divert to German airspace.

”There will be an air saturation that will affect Balearic airports throughout the summer and cause long delays,” he said. “To minimise the impact airlines need to have reserve aircraft available to avoid an accumulation of delays.”