MADRID – Flights to Spain’s Balearic Islands should be capped in summer, its regional government said, furthering the anti-tourism sentiment sweeping the nation.
Antoni Costa, spokesman for the conservative Balearic Islands authorities, said it should be allowed to manage the volume of incoming flights alongside the Spanish state airport operator Aena.
“Perhaps the time has come to say enough is enough,” Costa told reporters in Mallorca at the weekend.
Palma de Mallorca airport (Photo: Getty)“Just as the (regional) government is limiting the supply of tourist accommodation, perhaps it should be said that the increase in the number of slots in the summer, during the high season has come to an end. We have reached the maximum limit.”
Aena declined to comment on the proposal. It does not have to act on the idea, as it has authority over the number of slots granted to airlines.
It came as the organisers in the anti-tourist movement prepared for mass rallies over the summer.
Last year, a record 33.2 million passengers passed through Palma airport in Mallorca, a rise of 7 per cent year-on-year. More than two thirds were international travellers.
square BRITS ABROAD ‘I moved to Spain – now I’m bored and want to come back to the UK’
Read More
There were a record 243,000 flights, a rise of 6.3 per cent.
The Balearic Islands are ruled by the conservative People’s Party which is conventionally pro-business. It is a significant shift for it to back a limit on flights, a policy long championed by the left-wing Mes per Mallorca.
“The number of flights which have arrived at the islands has risen by 48 per cent in the past ten years between 2014 and 2024,” said Ferran Rosa, the Mes per Mallorca spokesman for airports, told The i Paper.
“The tourists are not content because of massification, nor the residents because we cannot enjoy where we live. We have a problem of the collapse of the whole society.”
“In winter, there are few flights between the islands and the rest of Spain but there are six per day for example to Cologne in Germany. It makes it impossible to lead any life which is not connected to tourism,” he said.
Maria Cardona, who is a member of the Ibiza protest group #CanviemElRumb (Catalan for “Change the Route”) told The i Paper that her group was planning a demonstration, along with other groups across Europe, on June 15.
In March, the Balearic Islands government announced it would raise its tourist tax and put a new levy on hire cars as the island chain tries to contain overtourism.
Spain is struggling to balance the success of its tourism industry, which accounts for about 13 per cent of GDP, with protests against its effects on local communities, where protesters argue it inflates house prices and damages the environment.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Spain’s anti-tourist drive could cap holiday flights to Ibiza and Mallorca )
Also on site :
- Explosions, huge fire in Sudanese city of Port Sudan
- NYT Connections Sports Edition: Hints and Answers for May 6
- Ukraine-Russia war live: Moscow hit by massive drone raid for second night ahead of Putin’s Victory Day parade