Antich confident Balearics will be granted airport control

BALEARIC President Francesc Antich yesterday said that he is confident that Palma's Son San Joan Airport will be included in the first phase of the shake up of Spanish airport management.

Initially, central government had set a passenger benchmark which, Palma with over 20 million passengers per year, meets.
But the Minister for development, Jose Blanco, this week moved the goal posts and threw into doubt whether Palma will meet the new criteria.
It appears that central government, as part of its assessment, is also going to study the financial viability and profitability of airports in regions where the local government and commercial sector wants to have a role in managing its local airports.

Antich said that Madrid is fully briefed on the Balearics's airport plans and intentions and ruled out any possibility of Palma airport being omitted from the first round of assessments.