Work starts on solving air traffic chaos

At a European Union transport ministers meeting yesterday in Brussels, Palma's Son San Joan airport would have been one of Europe's airports under the spotlight as the EU intensified its efforts to solve the continent's deepening air traffic delay crisis, pledging new proposals by the second half of the year. Last year Palma airport, while experiencing an 8.3 per cent rise in air traffic, suffered an estimated 35 per cent increase, above the European Union average increase of 30 per cent, in the number of flights delayed and is high in the rankings as one of the worst affected airports for both take-offs and landings. Officials from transport and defence ministries in the 15 EU states met in Brussels for the first session of a high-level working group instigated by EU Transport Commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, the European Commission said in a statement.