This summer, Palma Son Sant Joan Airport has more routes than ever before. There are connections with 147 airports in thirty countries, new routes for this summer including Montpellier, Sofia and Zagreb.
Although Spain's tourism agency Turespaña is interested in increasing long-haul, airport director Tomás Melgar doesn't believe that the Balearics should focus on this type of strategy. "Our markets in the Balearics are not long-haul." The islands have "the most important weight" in terms of European flights.
He explains that Balearic connections with large hubs such as Barcelona, Madrid, London, Paris and Berlin are very good. "Long-haul flights are normally supported by hubs and we are very well connected with a lot of them."
"If we conclude that there is an interesting route, such as is the case with New York, it would be studied. The flight from New York arrives full every day and that is a route that was established thanks to the joint work of the Balearic government and the Council of Mallorca."
While Germany and the UK continue to be the main markets in terms of the number of flights and passengers, Melgar points out that other markets such as France or Italy are growing a great deal.