The summer schedule for taxis in Palma starts today, drivers' representatives saying that the first of April start is too late. At the airport, there have been signs of the service being overwhelmed for at least a couple of weeks.
Arnau Bisquerra of the city's Radio-Taxi says that queues at the airport in recent days have been "immense". He is critical of the "nonsense" of limiting taxi activity at times when the service demands more vehicles. He is referring to the fact that the winter schedule, which is determined by the town hall, means that half the number of taxis in summer are operational at any given time. "It is absurd that we can't work 24 hours until April 1, when demand has existed for a month."
The drivers also fail to understand why they are prohibited from working a series of days per month at the airport, at the port and in Playa de Palma. Last year, this limitation was 12 days per month for each vehicle, but this has now been reduced to six days. Antoni Bauzá of the Auto Taxi Association says that drivers had complained about this to the councillor for mobility, Francesc Dalmau, "but he didn't want to give us the reason". "But they must now recognise that the measure didn't make sense as the limitation has been reduced."
The representatives describe the town hall's policy as "disastrous" and that this has been evident because of problems at the airport.