German airlines say Palma hub a “success”

The German “hub” set up at Palma airport was yesterday described as a “great success” by the participating airlines. The German hub was set up three years ago with the aim of creating a connecting airport, similar to Miami in the United States and to meet the rising demand. A spokesperson for German airline Condor said yesterday “we saw a great opportunity to set up a hub in Palma, not only to meet demand, but also to extend our operations out of Palma to other Spanish destinations.” Last year some 3.5 million German passengers used Palma airport and the hub has proved a huge success for Air Berlín, the only scheduled tourist service between Germany and Palma, which last year increased its passenger load by one million. But while the airlines are happy, residents who live around the airport are not because of the increase in air traffic and pollution caused by passengers who are not coming to Majorca, just using the airport as a staging post to their final destination. Now British airlines are considering making full use of Palma's new hub facilities.