Tourist industry starting to panic over domestic flight threat to Mallorca

Balearics could be left isolated

Mounting concerns over domestic flights to the Balearics and Canary Islands.

Mounting concerns over domestic flights to the Balearics and Canary Islands. | Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter

Humphrey CarterPalma17/03/2025 11:56
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The Spanish Tourism Board has expressed its support to the position of the Airline Association (ALA) and warns of the ‘danger’ to tourism and connectivity with the Spanish islands posed by the ‘government’s default’ on discounts for residents that the airlines pay in advance. According to the Board, the problem, which also affects routes to Ceuta and Melilla, is ‘of greater concern’ in the case of the Balearics and the Canary Islands due to the importance that tourism has on their economies.

Using the same figures as ALA, the Tourism Board has stressed that, as of January 2025, the government owed 810 million euros to airlines in subsidies for the 75% discount on the price of plane tickets for residents. Now, they fear that there is a problem of this debt increasing to 1.5 billion euros because the subsidies in the extended General State Budget (GSB) are so underfunded.

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All this has led to a situation of ‘unsustainable economic asphyxiation’ for the airlines, which may result in them ceasing to operate some routes or reducing the frequency of others. The president of the Tourism Board, Juan Molas, has indicated that if the government continues to fail to make payments, the connectivity of the Canary and Balearic Islands ‘will be seriously compromised’ because ‘there will be a substantial cut’ in the number of air seats available, which will have a ‘very damaging’ impact on tourism.

For its part, the government assured last week that it only has pending the payment of 300 million to the airlines for administrative issues related to the 75% discount for island residents during 2024 and not the 810 million that the Airlines Association (ALA) has quantified and announced.

Sources at the Ministry of Transport emphasised to Europa Press that this is an ‘administrative and one-off’ issue and that the discounts for residents are ‘guaranteed’. They assure that as the process of finalising the certifications advances and all the administrative procedures are completed, the amounts will be paid

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