Palma is the third busiest Spanish airport this public holiday weekend

Joan Collins PALMA airport will, this public holiday weekend, be the third busiest Spanish airport, mainly because of the increase in demand from the Spanish, British and German markets, which has caused a welcome increase in occupation for those hotels on Majorca which have yet not closed for Winter. It is expected that there will be 4'072 aircraft movements at Palma airport (compared with 3'954 at the same time in 2005) and the number of passengers who are expected to pass through the airport, according to figures from AENA (the Spanish Airports Authority), will be 649'767, in comparison with the 488'696 last year, this being a rise of 6.9 percent. Balearic airports are expecting, between October 11 and 16, to deal with 5'333 flights between them, and because of this AENA has started programmes to locate more passenger service staff in the places with most tourists. According to AENA, the amount of flights to and from the Balearics represents 14.8 percent of the total flights expected in all Spanish airports, among which Palma will be the third busiest with 4'072 aircraft movements, behind Madrid with 7'118 and Barcelona with 5'323. As for the rest of the Balearic airports, Ibiza has 722 operations planned for the long weekend (Thursday to Monday) and Mahon is expecting to handle 539 flights. The increasing of passenger service staff has been done with the cooperation of the airlines, handling agents, State Security Forces and the Local Police. In addition to this, AENA said that the airline check in desks will be adequately covered by ground crew and so unnecessary queues will be avoided. The busiest day for Palma airport will be today, with 755 aircraft movements and a total of 129'908 passengers. The Majorcan hotel sector is viewing the figures for this public holiday weekend as positive, as the offers “have worked especially well for the Spanish market and among the residents”, according to hotel sources. Once this holiday weekend is over practically all tourist accommodation on Majorca will close down for the Winter. The only hotels which will not close are in Palma with most of the low cost airlines continiung with normal summer services throughout the winter with Palma hoping to expand its long weekend market.