State air carrier Iberia's Palma to Madrid and Barcelona flights all suffered delays yesterday, the first day of a five-day break for many people. All of the flights suffered delays of an average of two hours because of a pilots strike. In total, 32 flights were disrupted for what Iberia sources were claiming were operational reasons, refusing to mention or discuss the strike. Either way, a large number of complaints were lodged by passengers looking forward to cashing in on the Balearics Day puente. In some cases passengers were forced to endure delays of as long as three hours. Yesterday, Palma's Son Sant Joan airport handled 280 flights and nearly 18'000 passengers and over the next four days, a total of 238'500 passengers will use the airport, with air traffic control handling 8'000 flights. Looking ahead to Easter, Iberia said yesterday that an extra 52 special flights are being operated in order to meet demand for flights to Majorca from the mainland. Local travel agents are also confident that seats on all domestic flights out of the Balearics will also be sold out for the Easter period.
Iberia flights hit by delays