Consubal stands for consumers and users in the Balearics.
This consumers’ association is to this week present a request to the management of Palma’s Son Sant Joan Airport that it does something about the way in which passengers have to pass through the duty-free area in departures.
Alfonso Rodríguez of Consubal says that the airport has become a huge shop. He wants a different arrangement so that passengers can decide for themselves whether they enter the duty-free area or not.
One of the most “sensitive” issues for Consubal is the fact that travellers are immediately confronted with displays for alcohol and tobacco.
This doesn’t take into account all the children who are exposed to these displays. “It’s obviously for commercial reasons. These are the products with the highest sales and which generate the most profit.” The airports authority Aena, Consubal notes, is to invest 600 million euros over the next four years in new facilities at Son Sant Joan.
Some of this investment is to go on improving passengers’ convenience and comfort.
Given this, the consumers’ association believes that now is the time to rethink the duty-free arrangement.
Of the three Balearic airports, Palma is the only one where passengers have to enter the duty-free zone.
In Ibiza there is a separate walkway, while in Minorca an arrangement like Palma’s only operates in high season.
The regional government’s directorates for consumer affairs and public health have both in contact with Aena in the past and asked them to create alternative areas so that the sale of alcohol and tobacco is less visible to minors.