July figures from Spain's tourism agency Turespaña indicate that Balearic airports accounted for 22.3% of Spain's foreign passenger arrivals, the highest percentage in the country. The number was 2.6 million. Catalonia ranked second (20.2%). With the addition of Madrid and Andalusia, four regions had 75% of all arrivals.
Passengers travelling with low-cost airlines gained at the expense of traditional airlines, respectively up 3.3% and down 2.6%.
For the largest tourism market, Germany, there was a 3.2% decrease in arrivals. As over 90% of all German tourists in the Balearics travel to Mallorca, Palma was the most affected. Even with this fall, the significance of German tourism to the Balearics was highlighted by the fact that almost 47% of all German travellers to Spain flew to airports in the Balearics.
Turespaña's sources include data from the airports authority AENA and the association for air slots (AECFA). Last week, figures were released which showed that in terms of all passengers - arrivals/departures - Palma experienced a very slight decrease in July, one of 0.1%. For the whole of the AENA network there was a 2.7% increase.
The Palma decrease was due to a fall in the number of national passengers, as foreign passenger numbers rose fractionally (0.2). In July 2024, there was an overall increase in passenger numbers of five per cent in Palma.