TW

The Aerotib bus services from the airport to resort began to operate in May last year. Following a somewhat stuttering start, they are now proving to be more popular. Between May and the end of August, there were 145,734 passengers on the four routes, an increase of almost 26% compared with last year.

There is no doubting the fact that the bus services offer a more economic way of travelling to resorts than taxis. Getting to Cala Millor by taxi can cost 90 euros; the bus costs one-ninth of this - ten euros.

While the buses are principally for tourists, they do also provide a service to residents, people who themselves are flying back to Majorca or who simply use them as a means of transport. Depending on the route, the buses stop in certain interior parts of the island.

Margalida Aguiló is a resident who has in the past taken the bus from the airport to the Intermodal Station in Palma and changed to get the bus to Alcudia. She no longer needs to and saves an hour's journey time as a result. The price of a ticket to Alcudia is eight euros.

Angelica Teishon from London was due to have picked up a hire car at the airport. When the company told her that she had to pay a 300 euros deposit, which she had been unaware of, she decided against hiring the car, even though it meant losing her reservation fee. She wasn't willing to fork out 80 euros on a taxi, although she accepts that a taxi is a more convenient means of transport. Her journey to Playa de Muro cost nine euros.

The bus stops, she observes, are easy to find, but there isn't - in her opinion - enough information about the service. Abdul Mohammed from Sweden agrees. Paying his first visit to Majorca and going to Alcudia, he wasn't aware that there was a bus. "We'd thought about taking a taxi for 75 euros, but when we saw that there was a bus, it was something of a relief." He feels the service is necessary but that the wait is too long.

The Marshall family of four from Britain accept that there is a wait, but it isn't a problem. "It gives us time to have a drink," says mum Veronica.