Barriers on the road to arrivals parking at Palma Son Sant Joan Airport in Mallorca

Not clear how long the barriers will remain in place. | Miquel À. Cañellas

Andrew EdePalma10/04/2023 16:52
TW
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Security guards at Palma Son Sant Joan Airport are making it clear that they have no authority to regulate traffic. The union representing them has raised this with the National Police's unit for private security, the guards complaining that it has been left up to them to control the traffic using the arrivals access road since barriers were installed on the outside lane that are designed to stop drivers from waiting to pick up rather than use the car parks.

Given these complaints, the airport's management has itself stressed that security guards should under no circumstances confront drivers; their function is solely to inform.

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An issue at the airport is that there is no permanent local police presence. This stems from a failure to reach agreement between Palma town hall and the Aena airports authority; one that goes back several years. The police usually only go to the airport in the event of an emergency. This is because there is no established agreement whereby the town hall receives payment. The police are not at the service of Aena but of the town hall, and the town hall won't accept providing service free of charge.

When the express car park at arrivals was first planned, the councillor who was then responsible for the police, Angelica Pastor, proposed that there should be thirty minutes of free parking and not fifteen. But it could only have been a proposal, as this was a decision for Aena and not the town hall.

Meanwhile, it isn't clear how long the barriers will remain in place, Aena having intimated that they may only have been a measure for the Easter period.