Palma airport blues

By Jason Moore During nine months of the year the airport terminal is like a ghost town and now the authorities are planning to make it even bigger. The walking distances between arrival and departure gates are so long that Palma could even submit a bid to host international marathons! As we have seen, the summer season is getting shorter every year which effectively means that the airport is only working at capacity for about 60 days a year. There is no need to build a convention centre, there is so much under-utilised space at the airport it could easily hold large scale events with few problems. You have to take into account that in the last decade Palma airport has doubled in size. Apart from the enormous new terminal the two old existing terminal buildings are also in use. The reason why the airport needs to be bigger is allegedly to cope with the increase in passenger numbers over the next two decades. However, I do not see other airports following Palma's lead. Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, is still battling to expand in a dispute which has been on-going for almost 20 years. What Palma airport needs, I would say, is an indepth report into how empty space could be better utilised.