Related news: Palma Mallorca: United Airlines growth could include Washington flights

Antonio de Toro, head of sales for United Airlines in Spain, suggests there could be flights from Washington to Palma in the near future to complement the existing Newark-New York route.

Explaining the airline's future plans for the Balearics, he says these are in line with what has been happening with the Newark route - consolidation and monitoring growth. "Next year or in two years we could increase the weekly or seasonal frequencies further. If the route continues to grow, we will probably see what has happened in other European destinations, which is the launch of new flights from Washington : we have seen this in Venice and Nice. In Barcelona it has been extended to the whole year. Partly it is also done to ease the traffic in Newark."

The Palma route was launched in 2022. "It is a total success story for United Airlines. We started three years ago with a smaller plane and three weekly frequencies and last summer we expanded the routes with larger planes. We are seeing that our reservations and future demand continue to grow, which is why it has been decided to expand by one more day a week and extend the season by one more month until October 25. It is good news that we are increasing capacity by 50% compared to the summer of 2024. We have grown up to 70% since we started."

De Toro is aware of the interest regional authorities and the hoteliers have in flights all year . "We monitor demand very closely and, in the case of Palma, we have seen it grow little by little since 2022. Is it feasible to extend flights to the whole year? It will depend on whether we can identify the demand out of season, on the fleet we have available. But if we see that extension can be justified by demand, of course we will do it, although when is difficult to know. Our commitment is to grow in Palma and throughout Spain. The country has become a very attractive destination for Americans in recent years."

United's monitoring clearly takes account of local issues. In Mallorca, these include overtourism and the protests . "This is something that has an impact on demand, that is clear. But the truth is that it is not being affected, at least according to the booking figures that we are seeing. I think this has more of an effect in Europe with Germany and the United Kingdom, which have more connections. Traffic from North American to Mallorca is not slowing down, and proof of this is that we are actually increasing it. If there is any impact, we are not witnessing it."

There is also the situation in the States and Donald Trump's presidency specifically. De Toro says the airline is not seeing any kind of negative effect on tourism. "We are totally apolitical. We are governed by demand flows and we do not see any kind of signal which indicates that the new administration in the US is having any negative impact on our flights. We monitor the political situations in all the countries where we fly, and the most important parameters are demand and the fares that are being paid."

Palma enhancing tourism promotion to the American market

Trump win could boost US tourism to Mallorca

Boom in direct flights from the United States to Mallorca

United Airlines commitment to growth in Palma could include Washington flights

Palma enhancing tourism promotion to the American market

Trump win could boost US tourism to Mallorca

Boom in direct flights from the United States to Mallorca