The DORA III report records that the Balearic Government requested to expand the airports

PalmaThe justification report for DORA III, the Airport Regulation Document that sets the investments, capacity, and tariffs for Aena's airports between 2027 and 2031, notes that the Balearic Islands requested more investments to be able to expand airport capacity. "Andalusia, Asturias, the Valencian Community, Extremadura, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands requested the inclusion of structural investments aimed at capacity expansion [...] with the goal of absorbing the growth in demand," the text asserts. The Balearic government has categorically denied this, and has insisted that this point "is false".

The approval of DORA III this week has consolidated a new increase in air traffic and places the three major airports of the Islands at the gates of 50 million annual passengers by 2031. In the explanatory memorandum to which this newspaper has had access, the document adds that these communities requested investments to carry out actions in "terminal buildings, platforms, runways and airfields, with the aim of absorbing the growth in demand, avoiding levels of saturation and guaranteeing adequate levels of service quality". It also highlights that the Islands requested that investments be reinforced in "road and rail access, land transport management, parking and intermodal connections".

When asked about this issue at the press conference following the Government Council, Vice President and spokesperson Antoni Costa said that what the document says "is false". "The Government requested security improvements and modernizations, yes, but expansions, no," he defended. Regarding everything that refers to an expansion, he said, "they will find us standing against it". In fact, President Marga Prohens assured last Wednesday that she considered it "a mistaken policy" that the Balearic airports could reach nearly 50 million annual passengers in 2031. "I agree that this figure is scary," she said. She also accused the state government of seeing the Islands' airports "only as a cash register," and argued that the proposal for airport co-management has "more sense than ever".

PSIB sources accuse the president of "lying to the citizens again". "The Government was not only informed, but also proposed airport improvement investments," they point out. "They were aware of the drafting of the DORA, they accepted the figures and, furthermore, they transmitted their favorable opinion," they insist.