The weather didn't disrupt the air show
An estimated 9,000 people attended the Air Force's air show on Saturday. A celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Son Sant Joan military airbase, it was an event that attracted rather more positive publicity than that which has concerned the airbase recently - the row about the planned weapons and missiles depot. Where there was some negativity, this related to a test flight by the F-18 Hornet that was to appear at the air show. There were delays to regular commercial flights. One passenger on a flight from Barcelona reported that his plane was held for two hours before taking off. The pilot explained that the air force took priority.
Normal operations at the airport were suspended for 90 minutes on Saturday. This halting of flights didn't cause disruption because airlines had been given plenty of advance notice. If there were delays, these were more likely to have been caused by the weather. At one point it was feared that the air show would have to be cancelled, Aemet having issued alerts (amber in the Palma area) for rain, thunderstorms and wind. Up to 100 litres per square metre of rainfall were threatened. As things turned out, the highest accumulated rainfall - around 44 litres - was in the Tramuntana. The risk of high winds vanished. The maximum gust at the airport was a mere 18 kilometres per hour, no more than a gentle breeze for wind speeds, according to the Beaufort Scale.
Seaplanes and airships
All the aircraft that had been scheduled to fly during the air show did so, with the exception of a Canadair water-bombing seaplane of the type that is based in the Bay of Pollensa. The military base in Puerto Pollensa is occasionally opened to the public; more often than Son Sant Joan is. There have been seaplane events in recent years, which have contributed to a desire to develop further seaplane activities.
The Mallorca Aeronautical Association has been the driving force behind proposals for Pollensa. It hasn't envisaged there being commercial flights but has argued the case for civilian flights as part of a seaplane-training centre. While the base itself has generally been amenable to possible developments, obstacles have included the ministry of defence, the Air Safety Agency and the town hall, the latter rather depending on the political makeup at given times. Undeterred, the association has come up with another idea - the use of seaplanes for monitoring human trafficking and illegal immigration on small boats. This would apparently require some adjustment to EU legislation, and so there is a plan to lobby the European Commission.
On balance, the chances of expanded use of seaplanes are probably more likely than airships ever making commercial flights to Palma. The prospects for the Airlander airship, to which Air Nostrum has made some commitment, surface periodically. They have once more, this time with the signing of a memorandum of understanding to develop an Airlander 10 hydrogen-electric variant. Will there ever be airship flights to Palma? Who can say, though some reckon that pigs might just take to the air first.
The airport's woes
The remodelling work at Palma Airport has not exactly been without controversy. There have been safety concerns, which in turn have led to criticisms of the image conveyed. The most-publicised incident was in July. Debris crashed through a glass roof near baggage reclaim. Politicians and businesspeople have variously described the situation as "disastrous", "chaotic" and "deplorable". The ambitions of both right and left on the political spectrum to secure co-management of the airport have been strengthened because of all this. The chances of this co-management are remote; Aena's 49% private shareholders constitute a major obstacle.
A report outlining the woes concluded with the vice-president of the airports authority, Javier Marín, stating that the key objective is "to offer a more modern, efficient airport, adapted to the needs of passengers, employees and airlines, and provide the quality service that Mallorca needs". All the work is due to be completed towards the end of 2026.
Overbooking on the planes
The association of travel agencies in the Balearics has drawn attention to what it says is a level of airline-seat overbooking never previously known. This affects airports such as Palma in particular because of the volume of flights that attract the residents' discount. The association highlighted this as a key reason for all the overbooking, which isn't illegal and has always happened, but not as much as it is at present.
The root of the problem, it is argued, is the debt owed to airlines by the Spanish Government. The Airlines Association in Spain puts this at around 300 million euros, money that hasn't been paid to cover the discount subsidy. Airlines are overbooking because they know that not all reservations with the discount will actually be used, and they are left without compensation because the subsidy is only paid out (eventually) for flights taken.
Commitment to the railway
Spain's transport minister, Óscar Puente, was in Palma on Monday for the official inauguration of the redeveloped Paseo Marítimo. He was there because the road comes under the Balearics Port Authority; he is the minister responsible for the State Ports, of which Palma is one. Of rather greater importance to President Prohens, one of the various other 'authorities' in attendance, was what Puente had to say about state funding of rail projects in Mallorca. In his words, the island "cannot be left behind". "We are absolutely committed to the growth of the railway network," he stressed. For the president and the regional minister, José Luis Mateo, this was music to their ears and immediately led to speculation that the Manacor to Arta line, the least of the Balearic Government's rail project priorities, will now be more likely to get the go-ahead.
No rent caps, less financial aid
Mateo also wears the housing ministerial hat. Rather less convivial in terms of relations with the Sánchez government in Madrid than the railways was the news that the Balearics could face receiving less financial aid for the building of homes if the regional government doesn't adopt the policy of applying rent caps in so-called stressed areas. This could be as much as 20% less.
The Partido Popular government in Palma has resisted accepting this policy, arguing - among other things - that it would undermine regional powers in respect of housing decision-making. There is also opinion which maintains that rent caps are counterproductive in that they result in less availability of properties. The extent to which Mallorca and the rest of the Balearics would be classified as stressed is a further issue. One view is that most of the region would be subject to the criteria.
Meanwhile, and proving that attitudes regarding curbs on foreign buying of properties can be common to both the right as well as the left, Vox have tabled a motion in Congress "to stop the massive purchase of homes" by foreign investors.
Demolition day
In Magalluf and Peguera, they've been knocking things down rather than building them. President Prohens was in attendance for the starts made to the demolitions of the Hotel Teix in Magalluf and the Hostel Colón in Peguera. Respectively, these are to make way for as yet unspecified public services for residents and a car park. EU Next Generation Funds have hastened the acquisition of both properties by Calvia Town Hall and their demolition. Part of a revitalisation of the municipality's resorts, the president observed that the start to the demolitions was "a day that will surely be remembered for many years". Which was perhaps stretching things. She added that these were examples of the transformation of the Balearics and of "the commitment to containment, to growth in value rather than volume, and to the well-being of residents".
The German tourism slump
The containment, by which Prohens meant the containment of tourist numbers, was a theme taken up by tourism minister Jaume Bauzá in parliament on Tuesday. He responded to an opposition charge of not having taken "a single bold measure to reverse (tourist) saturation" by blaming the left - hardly for the first time - for overcrowding and saturation. This exchange followed the minister's observations regarding a report from Spain's Turespaña tourism institute that anti-tourism protests have been a factor in explaining the slump in German tourism in Mallorca, a fall that is forecast to continue over the winter low season. "We don't attach much importance to this issue," Bauzá said of the protests.
Turespaña had also highlighted the impact of prices, and the minister agreed that less-expensive destinations are benefiting. But while it is "always worrying when some markets decline" (he included British tourism as well), he drew attention to other markets like the French offsetting this. Market diversification, the minister concluded, "is a plus for tourism in the Balearics".
The travel agencies association, having previously felt that protests had not affected German tourism, was now wondering if they had. As prices are lower in the winter, these were no longer "a valid excuse" for explaining the decline, Turespaña having cited figures from the IATA International Air Transport Association which point to a ten per cent fall in airline bookings from Germany to the Balearics (for which, read Mallorca) over the low season.