There are long queues at security controls at Palma airport this Friday morning as people start jetting off at the start of the Easter holidays. Easter Week departure operation.
Some sources claim that possible “secret” strike has been called which are causing some flight delays.
Passengers planning to fly from Son Sant Joan airport today are being advised to check the status of their flight in real time o the airport’s website.
So far the airport authority AENA has said nothing and given no explanation as to what is going on at Palma airport and the chaos has already spread across X network (formerly known as Twitter) with some people claiming that some passengers are fainting in the waiting areas.
Ironically there has been a gig fall in the number of international flights at Palma this Easter.
According to figures from the Aena airports authority released on Wednesday, there will be 3,074 international flights at Palma Son Sant Joan Airport between March 22 and April 1.
These Easter flights are almost 40% fewer than for the Easter period last year. Between March 31 and April 10, 2023, there were 5,028 flights.
For example, on Saturday, March 30, 267 flights are scheduled. These compare with 523 on Saturday, April 8, 2023.
Aena attributes this decrease to the fact that Easter is a week earlier this year and that flights in 2023 coincided with the start of the tourism season.
While May 1 is usually taken to be the first day of the ‘official’ tourism season in Mallorca, the airports authority is probably referring to airlines’ summer scheduling. Although Easter Week falls in March this year, changes in schedules from winter to summer only come into effect at the end of the month. This is the case every year. As for national flights, the number will be very similar to 2023 - 2,275 compared with 2,300 last year.
The latest news is that the chaos at Palma airport is apparently due to a strike by Trablisa workers and many passengers have missed their flights.
Crew members are informing passengers on board the planes of delays in departure times, caused by “problems at security controls”.
Airport authority AENA has denied that any strike action has been formally called but there is a go-slow.
Security firm Trablisa has also denied any form of industrial action.
“It has been a one-off situation at the checkpoints that has been resolved”, the private security company said.
AENA claims that since midday that “the situation has returned to normal”.