17/02/2015 00:00
TW
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Lack of winter flights
Dear Sir,
I am saddened by the drastic lack of winter flights from the UK to Majorca but encouraged by the Bulletin’s campaign and your readers’ letters. (Daily Bulletin, 14 February, lead item.)
I have been promoting hotels, tourist boards and attractions on the island for over 40 years and watch the diminishing volume of flights and closure of hotels in the winter months with frustration.
Many visitors at The Hotel Bon Sol, here for the first week of the season to enjoy Valentine’s celebrations, have complained about the difficulty of obtaining flights or of having to travel to London from Scotland and other places not offering direct flights to Palma.
My own experiences during 3 or 4 visits each year have highlighted the need to book months in advance and every flight I have taken has been full.
A campaign is needed in the UK to persuade the tour operators and airlines to increase capacity to satisfy the growing demand.
The tourist authorities in Majorca should assist the UK market by offering incentives to put on more flights. Perhaps by reducing landing costs for a start!
More cruise ships are bringing visitors to Palma but this provides limited value to the island. The big benefit will come when more flights bring more holidaymakers thus keeping hotels open in the winter, staff employed for longer and attractions receiving more people.
Please keep up the pressure.

Sincerely,
Doug Goodman

Getting to Majorca
Dear Sir,
On our recent trip to Majorca on 2 February we had to fly easyJet early morning from Newcastle to Gatwick then wait 3 hours to fly from Gatwick to Palma.
On our return we had to fly from Palma to Gatwick then stay overnight in a hotel before returning the following morning to Newcastle.
On our 6 days stay we visited the supermarket on a daily basis. Shopped in Palma bought a new kitchen from Leroy Merlin and visited a restaurant every night for an evening meal even though it was hard to find many open then we would visit local bars.
I worked out we spent about two thousand euros during our 6 days. Does Majorca make that much money in the summer months it can shut shop for the winter?
Graham and Karen King

Winter flights
Dear Sir,
We own an apartment in Torre Nova, we have to fly from Manchester in the winter months as there are no flights departing from the North East of England. Majorca is a beautiful island, but due to lack of flights we and our family are limited as to the amount of time we spend in Majorca out of season.

Anthony Kemp

Holiday flights
Dear Sir,
I read with great delight on your front page of Sunday/Monday’s edition (15-16 February) about your campaign about flights in the winter from Scotland.
After a trip that started at 5am on Sunday/Morning with a flight from Edinburgh to London with a 4 hour wait and arriving at Palma at 5p.m.
On the full flight from London there was more than a third of the passengers from Scotland (you can hear the accents) this was the same over the Christmas holidays and has been the same over  the last few years (We come over to Puerto Soller four to five times a year as we have a place there). On our way back  home we left at 8a.m and didn’t get home till 9.30p.m.
I  believe the next step you could take is approaching the Scottish Government and use the angle that Ruling party in Scotland and some in the Majorca Government wanted more power for their people, away from the central government in Madrid and London and yet airlines like Ryanair, easyJet and Jet2 lay down the law and fleece the people north of the border from Spring to October with prices double than the flights from down south.
So why not pay back some of our support over the summer months with flights in the winter.
Yours hopefully,
 
Frederick A Graham