The first steps are being taken in forming a "platform" to advance the case for co-management of Palma airport. There have been meetings involving representatives of PSOE, Més and Podemos as well as the residents association in the airport area and the Palma federation of residents associations.
These meetings have taken place at the headquarters of the two main unions, CCOO and UGT. One of the main driving forces behind the platform is David Abril of Més. Bel Oliver of PSOE is another. Abril describes the airport as the "real Winter Palace" in the Balearics, for which there needs to be participation.
Abril points to the financial performance of the airport - a profit of some 200 million per year - all of which goes to Madrid and is not returned. The objective of the platform is to ensure that half of this stays in the Balearics. "It's a fair claim," he insists.
There is a legal and statutory basis for demanding co-management. Under Article 31 of the Balearics Statute of Autonomy, there is, says Abril, a right to participate in the "model" of the airport.
A next step will be to widen participation in the platform and involve Minorca and Ibiza as well. A further task will be to analyse precisely the benefit that Madrid extracts from the airports. Abril observes that it is far higher than what is collected from the tourist tax. Keeping half of it is "essential to meeting the demands of the archipelago".
Més, meanwhile, is to formally present a parliamentary proposal for the airport's name to be changed to Ramon Llull.