34% increase in air traffic passengers for the Balearic’s over Easter period
Friday, April 25th, 2014
Spain’s Development minister reveals a 34% increase in air traffic passengers for the Balearic’s over the 2014 Easter period with respect to 2013.
The Development Minister, Ana Pastor , met  with Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Transport and Housing, Rafael Catalá, and with the president of the Balearic Islands, Jose Ramon Bauzá , to review the activities that the Ministry is undertaking in this region.
They have reviewed air traffic data from the Easter week 2014 in which, when compared to the same period last year, there has been a 34% increase in air passenger traffic.
Passenger numbers increased in the Balearic islands during Easter prompting those taking the lead during the meeting to highlight that policies bonuses and incentives are working positively. This has allowed airlines to be very competitive, which is supporting the recovery of tourism and furthering the improvement of the general economic situation.
In this regard they noted that the summer season has a very positive outlook from the airlines in terms of slot reservations taken by the companies, with shows increases of over 5% in Palma airport and more than 10% in Ibiza and Menorca.
OSP (Public Service Obligation) Menorca
At the meeting, Pastor and Bauzá also analyzed administrative actions that will enable the OPS of Menorca to hold the awarded contract and to be guaranteed connectivity from the 1st of October.
In addition for its part, the Ministry will continue to work on identifying incentives to develop air transport between the islands and the mainland and in this way promote domestic and foreign tourism.
As for the Balearic ports, these are also indicating a positive forecast for the summer and the rest of the year.  The total traffic in the ports of general interest in the Balearic Islands experienced a 7% increase for the first two months of this year with respect to the same period in 2013.
The Balearic airports together, of Mallorca , Menorca and Ibiza took an estimated figure of 1,090,461 passengers from 11 to 21 April, these dates being the festivities of Easter as held in Spain.
Palma de Mallorca airport took the lion’s share of the air traffic with an estimated figure of 885,916 passenger and virtually a 34% rise from last year.
This holds out economic promise to the whole of the Balearic region but especially for Palma de Mallorca and makes up for the very poor start to 2014.
Brendan Bierley
