Over the past month, shipping companies have made additional crossings to Mallorca in order to transport some 4,000 more hire cars. The reason is the high demand. But even with these cars, the supply is said to be around 50,000 lower for the whole of the Balearics than it was in 2019, when there were an estimated 130,000 hire cars on the islands.
The availability of these extra vehicles has come as something of a surprise, Antoni Mercant of the Chamber of Commerce noting that manufacturers had said in April that they didn't have sufficient supplies.
The Aevab and Baleval car-hire associations accept that prices are higher this summer. However, this hasn't deterred demand, Othman Ktiri, the president of Balebal, saying that companies are currently operating "one hundred per cent".
The car-hire multinationals at Palma Son Sant Joan Airport indicate that they have at times been overwhelmed by demand. The advice is to make advance bookings online, but the "vast majority" of holidaymakers look to book when they arrive and then discover that there isn't availability. This is a key reason why more cars have been shipped to Mallorca.