MÉS rejects the 50 million passengers that the new DORA forecasts for the Balearic Islands' airports

PalmaMÉS per Mallorca rejects the forecasts of the new Airport Regulation Document (DORA), which plans to increase the number of passengers at the three main airports of the Balearic Islands to almost 50 million annually by 2031. The eco-sovereigntist deputy in Congress, Vicenç Vidal, believes that the Islands can no longer sustain more airport growth and questions whether the 686.62 million euros of planned investment will serve to expand the capacity of the facilities.

According to DORA's forecasts, Palma airport would go from the 34.27 million passengers projected for 2027 to 35.67 million in 2031. In Ibiza, the increase would be from 9.17 to 9.72 million, while in Menorca it would go from 4.28 to 4.45 million. Together, the three airports would reach 49.84 million passengers annually, 2.12 million more than the 47.72 million projected for 2027.

"The Balearic Islands cannot sustain more growth. We do not need to prepare the airports to receive two million more passengers. We need to place limits on a saturation that already has consequences for the territory, housing, mobility, and quality of life," Vidal has denounced.

The MÉS deputy believes that the planned investment should not be used to generate more airport capacity. "The airports of the Balearic Islands do not need more expansions. They need proper public transport, a reduction in emissions, and to minimize the impacts they generate," he has argued. In this sense, he has opted for investments that guarantee "safety, resident connectivity, and service quality," but not for continuing to increase the number of passengers.

Demands the co-management of the airports

In view of the DORA forecasts, Vidal has demanded that Congress debate as soon as possible the bill for airport co-management in the Balearic Islands that MÉS per Mallorca has recently registered in the Chamber.

The deputy has demanded that the PSOE allow the processing of the initiative and has announced that he will pressure for it to be debated. Vidal has specifically demanded the intervention of Francina Armengol, as a representative of the Balearic PSOE in Congress.

"It makes no sense for Aena and the State government to be able to decide unilaterally the future of the islands' airports while a proposal to give the Balearic Islands real decision-making capacity remains blocked in Congress," he stated.

"We have done our job and have put on the table a law for airport co-management. Now it is up to the PSOE to make it possible for it to be discussed," he added.

Vidal also warned that the Balearic Islands cannot continue without decision-making capacity regarding infrastructures that, according to MÉS, directly condition the economic, territorial, and tourist model of the islands. "Co-management cannot be an announcement or a promise: it must begin by being able to discuss a law that is already on the table," he remarked.

MÉS asks to withdraw the DORA

MÉS demands, for this reason, the withdrawal of the DORA until a new airport governance model is agreed upon that gives real decision-making capacity to the institutions of the Islands.

"We will not accept that a new growth of our airports be planned from Madrid while the institutions of the Islands continue to be unable to decide on infrastructures that directly condition our territorial and economic model," warned Vidal.

The party also demands that the Spanish government provide a scheduled plan to reverse the privatization of Aena and recover public control of the airport network. Vidal considers that the current model contradicts the need to limit the tourist pressure on the Islands.

"The Islands need to reduce the pressure and set limits, while Aena's model turns every additional passenger into more business. We cannot subordinate the carrying capacity of Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza to the interests of the shareholders," he concluded.