Palma’s Son Sant Joan airport had a record year in 2015. A total of 23,745,131 passengers passed through the airport last year, an increase of 2.7% over 2014 and over half a million more than the previous record year of 2007.
The airport also registered an increase in the number of flights. There was a total of 178,253 takeoffs or landings: 3.3% more than in 2014. There were eleven months of growth and six months for which records were broken.
The 2014 passenger number total was exceeded in the first week of December, a month when there was also growth both in terms of passengers and flights. There were 676,454 people coming in or going out, which was an increase of over 7% compared with December 2014. Domestic travel grew in December by 11%. The 432,296 domestic passengers meant that the national market contributed more to the airport’s traffic than international passengers, whose number was up by over one per cent to more than 240,000. Of these, German passengers accounted for over a half (139,000), with the UK well behind with 43,500. There was also a rise in flights during December, with 6,842 having represented an 11% increase.
Between the three Balearic airports there were 33 million passengers in all last year, which was also a record and an increase of 3.5% over 2014. Ibiza registered 6.4 million passengers, up by over 4%, while Minorca had the greatest rise: its 2.8 million were 9% up.