Your seven days news round-up in Mallorca

Palma Airport is rarely out of the news, and over the past few days Son Sant Joan has been spotlighted for a variety of reasons.

The most serious of these was so serious that it was raised in Spain's Senate. An airport internal safety report was quoted by Senator Enric Xavier Morera: "It was absolutely irresponsible to leave the Balearic Islands without technicians in order to save on costs." In the line of fire was the state navigation company, Enaire, which has responsibility for air-traffic control. The context for the report was the weather at the end of October, specifically the 28th and 29th, when Valencia was experiencing the highly damaging storm. While Valencia was on red alert, a unit at the Palma control tower was closed because two specialist flow control technicians were off sick. Other controllers could have been brought in and worked overtime. However, the decision was taken by Enaire to hand control functions to a remote centre - Madrid's.

The report maintains that only "providence" prevented serious consequences. At the time of the DANA storm, the Balearics were variously on yellow or amber alert. The weather was nothing like as bad as it was in Valencia, but these alerts themselves were a factor. The point was that flights were being diverted from Valencia Airport or they were potentially subject to taking flight paths that would have moved them towards the Balearics. As providence had it, there were no diversions to Palma. But had there been, the report expressed concern as to what might have happened because of the absence of local controllers. The director of Enaire's air navigation services has been asked what measures will be taken to prevent a repeat of the situation.

A start to the airport rail line

The second major item of airport-related news concerned the Balearic Government's plan for a rail line from the centre of Palma to the airport and on to Llucmajor and ultimately Campos. This line is one of three the government is proposing - the others are Manacor-Arta and Sa Pobla-Alcudia - but the airport makes it a 'stellar' project. While it forms part of the overall government strategy for public transport, the airport line is also a replacement for the tram scheme that the previous government had wanted. This in itself raises a question about funding, because the Balearic and Spanish governments have to sit down and thrash this out. It isn't possible to simply transfer investment for one project (the tram) to another.

The regional mobility ministry has initiated contacts with Madrid regarding the airport line, the timeframe for which envisages completion as far as Llucmajor in 2032. In order to comply with this schedule, the ministry has to get cracking this year. However, there is a snag in that the regional government's budgets for 2025 have not been passed. It may be that they will eventually be approved, but for now the assumption is that the government will have to work from the same budget as for 2024, and there is no budgeted item for the airport railway. Fortuitously, one million euros of reserve have been found, and this will cover the cost of drafting the project, which will shortly be put out to tender.

Anxiety and homeless at the airport

Last Friday, Ryanair issued a statement regarding an incident that had occurred at the airport the previous Monday. A passenger booked on a flight to Barcelona refused to pay the 50 euro fee for having an item of hand luggage that exceeded the permitted size. She subsequently "irritated" staff at the boarding gate and so the gate agent denied her boarding.

According to the woman's mother, she suffered an anxiety attack because of this. She had apparently begged on her knees to be allowed to board; she had some form of "professional" commitment in Barcelona on the Tuesday morning. In the end she caught another flight with a different airline.

A couple of months ago there was a report about homeless people living at the airport. There weren't many of them - no more than perhaps a dozen - and they were all in a transit area near to the main car park. At the time it was said they weren't a nuisance to anyone, and the airport management has now confirmed this. The people who were in the transit area have moved on, but this doesn't appear to because of any action by the management. It is unaware of what has happened to them. "The airport does not intervene if these people do not interfere with operations, which has been the case." The management adds that it contacts social services when there is evidence of people who are suffering from social exclusion.

The continuing motorhomes' controversy

This is a sadly all too familiar story of people who, for whatever reason, find themselves without a home or struggle to access housing. One of the most publicised news stories related to this has been the situation with people living in motorhomes in Palma, to which the town hall has responded with provisions under revised civic ordinance that are designed to stop them living in vehicles.

Initial approval of this ordinance was given at last week's council meeting. While a protest is planned against the new regulations, the president of a group of motorhome users says that legal action will be taken against the leader of Vox at the town hall, Fulgencio Coll, for having called motorhome users "criminals" during that meeting.

The mayor, Jaime Martínez, has meanwhile caused a stir by stating that there are 5,000 people living in motorhomes and similar in the city. This figure conflicts with some 150 that University of the Balearics Islands' research counted last summer. The author of the research report, Professor Jesús González, has since clarified that the university found 150 motorhomes (camper vans, caravans). Even so, the number of people is nothing like what the mayor maintains. This said, González reckons it is not inconceivable that there are 5,000 people living in caravans, motorhomes, cars, shanties and various types of substandard housing.

Prices up and so is tourism

At the other end of the scale, it has been said that some of northern Europe's rich are now finding luxury properties in Mallorca to be too expensive. There again, it does seem to depend on the definitions of both rich and luxury. In the restaurant sector, for example, the president of the CAEB Restaurants Association, Juanmi Ferrer, believes that Mallorca offers "medium luxury". Prices are not in the same league as, for example, Dubai, London or New York.

The ever upward trend in prices does of course continue to arouse debate about tourism going forward. But the final figures for 2024 suggest that prices haven't as yet had a negative impact. A new record was set last year. In the Balearics there were 18.74 million tourists, an increase of around 900,000.

Striking features of the figures concern the markets that registered the greatest increases or decreases. The largest increase, 18.7% to 1.83 million, was for 'other European countries'. Given the countries that are otherwise specified, these must be eastern European plus, for instance, Austria and Ireland. French tourism was up almost 15% to 1.12 million, and German tourism topped five million for the first time (a rise of 9.2%). The largest decrease, -3.2%, was British. Down to 3.58 million, the fall for the whole year wasn't as great as some months hinted it would be. In July, for example, British tourism fell by 10.1%.

Balearics and Canaries against overtourism

If the Balearics fail to match the 2024 record number of tourists in 2025, there will be plenty of people cheering. But it would need a huge fall in numbers to overcome the problems highlighted by last year's protests. The Balearics and the Canaries were the main centres for these protests, and the governments in the two island regions are now looking at joining forces in finding ways to combat the problems.

It is frequently and erroneously stated that the protests were against mass tourism. The point is that mass tourism has existed in the Balearics since the 1960s, so eliminating this is simply never going to happen and everyone knows it isn't. A misinterpretation stems from the Spanish 'masificacion'. This doesn't mean mass tourism. It means overcrowding and, by extension, overtourism. It was overcrowding and related issues, e.g. housing, that formed the pretext for the protests.

The two governments want to draw up strategies and legislation for tackling overcrowding. They hope that in doing so together they will generate greater legal security against potential legal challenges. The Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, for one, has given the Balearic Government its support. Its president, Javier Vich, is now vice-president of the national CEHAT confederation, whose president is Jorge Marichal from Tenerife.