Palma airport appears to be struggling under flight and passenger pressure. | Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter

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In 2024, Palma and Ibiza airports were hit by the highest rate of delays and cancellations in Spain, according to AirHelp's annual travel punctuality report. Of the almost 16 million passengers who flew from Palma, more than 5.5 million suffered delays or cancellations, which means that 35% of passengers had incidents on their flight.

In the case of Ibiza airport, it is the airport with the second highest rate of incidents during 2024, with 31% of passengers affected by disruptions this year. Nationally, Spain is the country with the most departures recorded, with one million flights, and with the most passenger movements, approximately 145 million, during 2024. Although air activity has remained more or less stable compared to 2023, when just 80,000 flights and eight million fewer passengers were recorded, the punctuality of Spanish runways has worsened by 2%.

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While in 2022 the delay rate did not reach 22% -being one of the most punctual countries in Europe-, in 2023 the unpunctuality rate had already increased to 24% and, again, this year the interruption rate has worsened again, reaching 26%. As a result, almost 2.25 million passengers will be able to complain to their airline about the disruption of a 2024 flight from Spain.

On the other hand, the report details that the summer months continue to be those with the highest air traffic, especially July and August, but they are also those with the highest rates of disruptions - June, July and September. In fact, the biggest day with incidents in Spain was 19 July, although on this occasion it was due to the global crash of Microsoft and AENA's operating system, affecting almost 70% of passengers with a scheduled flight that day; followed by 1 July, the date that marks the first departure operation, with 55% of incidents.