25/04/2013 00:00
TW
0
Staff Reporter

PALMA
LOW cost airlines brought 601'069 passengers to Palma during the first quarter of the year, an increase of 0.6 percent on the same period in 2009, Central Government reported yesterday.

It was a very different picture though for regular airlines who could muster no more than 58'349 for journeys to Palma from January to March this year, a year-on-year decrease of 18.3 percent.

The combined forces of low cost and regular airlines brought 659'418 passengers to Palma in the first quarter of this year, a decline of 1.4 percent on the same period in 2009.

Palma's Son Sant Joan remains the third highest used airport in the country.
However, a closer analysis of data for March reveals that the number of people coming to Palma by low-cost airline increased by 5.3 percent to reach 288'255 passengers, the highest registered in the country.

Regular airlines also boosted their flight reservations by 3.3 percent in March, bringing a total of 36'105 people to Palma. The combined sales of seats by low cost and regular airlines carried 324'360 people to Majorca last month, an overall increase of 5.1 percent.

Across the Balearics, low cost flights accounted for 621'550 passengers during the first quarter of the year, an increase of 1.3 percent compared to the same period last year. In terms of March alone, 299'419 people came to the Balearics, an increase of 6.7 percent.

The regular airlines didn't fare so well in the Balearics as a whole during the first quarter of the year. The 58'754 passengers they registered reflected a downturn of 18.4 percent.

However, looking separately at March, they did better with an upturn in business of 3.1 percent, shuttling a total of 36'219 people to the Balearics last month.

In Spain as a whole said Central Government, low cost airlines ferried 5.26 million passengers during the first quarter of this year, an increase of 4.9 percent compared to the same period last year. Regular airline companies carried 5.12 million travellers during the same period, breaking even with their sales figures for the first three months of last year.

From January to March this year, low cost companies accounted for more than half (50.7 percent) of Spain's international airline passenger traffic.