On Sunday night, a resident of Algaida arrived at Palma Son Sant Joan Airport on a flight from Valencia. It was gone midnight but there were "a lot of people" at arrivals. And there were a lot of people trying to get a taxi. After waiting around an hour, it was now past 2am, she phoned friends and asked them to pick her up. She adds: "I have worked at the airport three summers in a row and I have never seen so many people waiting for a taxi at this time."
The president of one of the taxi-driver associations, Biel Moragues, agrees. "In the short term it is impossible to find a solution, it's madness. There aren't enough buses either. But everywhere is the same - Barcelona airport, Costa del Sol." He says that there aren't enough drivers to meet demand. In Ibiza the problem is twice as bad. "Everything is being overwhelmed, it's unsustainable. This has never happened before."
Moragues adds that it is always the taxi-drivers who get the blame. "People don't complain that they can't get a bus. But we can't handle all the traffic." As for the buses, the A1 leaves every 12 minutes for the centre of Palma. The last service is at 1.15am. The last A2 bus to Arenal goes at twenty minutes past midnight.
He estimates that there is a shortage of 500 taxi drivers in Mallorca. "Faced with various difficulties, a general plan has to be drawn up, given the situation that we have."