The new bus services between the airport and certain tourist resorts start next week, but only two of them. From 3 May, two new lines - A11 to Paguera via Magalluf and A32 to Alcudia and on to Can Picafort - will commence. A third line, A42 to Cala Millor and Cala Bona, will begin on 1 June, while the fourth - A51 to Cala d'Or via Arenal - will start on 15 June.
These services do stop in different places, so they aren't truly direct services. In the case of the Alcudia service, for instance, the bus will stop in Marratxi and Inca. Other services will pass through and stop in the likes of Manacor, Llucmajor, Campos, Montuiri and Vilafranca. Full information will be available from Thursday on the website www.tib.org.
Tickets will cost, depending on the line, between five and twelve euros. The regional ministry of transport anticipates that there will be some 330,000 users of these services this summer. The lines will continue in winter (i.e. from November to April), though the schedules are likely to be adjusted.
Taxi drivers were initially opposed to the services and protested and threatened to stage strikes. Changes have been made which have allayed many of their concerns, albeit that one of the drivers' associations is still far from happy. Meanwhile, some 500 taxi drivers in Palma are expected to stage a protest today and bring traffic to a halt for a time. This has nothing to do with the new services but everything to do with a nationwide protest against what they say are the indiscriminate granting of licences to vehicles for hire with drivers.
The taxi drivers believe that changes to legislation established five years ago will mean the legalisation of services such as Uber which, in principle, were not covered by the new legislation. The first national congress of taxi drivers, held on 6 April, agreed to stage today's protest, which is expected to see the largest ever strike of drivers in Valencia and Alicante, and also to hold a march and rally in Madrid on 30 May.