Twenty years are enough to understand to what extent the size of the Balearic Islands' airports has changed. Between January and August 2006, 20.9 million passengers passed through the airfields of Palma, Ibiza, and Menorca. In the same period this year, 34.3 million have already passed through. That is 13.4 million more travelers in just two decades, an increase that in the island airports as a whole stands at 64.3%.

While a part of the island's society demands the co-management of airports as a measure to reduce the massive influx of tourists, the data confirm an inertia that seems impossible to change: the airports of Palma and Ibiza have once again broken historical records in the month of highest traffic. Son Sant Joan saw 4,808,295 passengers pass through, the highest monthly record in the island airport's history and 2.3% more than the same month in 2025. El Codolar moved 1,519,201 passengers, 2.5% more than in August 2025, and with the January-August cumulative total reaching 6,778,163 passengers, 3% more year-on-year.

While Aena and the island and regional governments pass the buck over who is responsible for the saturation, the saturation does not stop increasing. In the first six months of 2026, Mallorca's main airport has once again pulverized all its records and is already close to 15 million passengers (14.9), which represents 14% more than just three years ago, compared to the first semester of 2023.

Coffee with milk and a croissant, the kind you can't take apart because it's frozen for the hospitality industry, 6.5 euros. A tortilla sandwich, beer, and coffee, 28 euros. This isn't a luxury restaurant, but rather an ordinary bar with shared tables, usually at any of the airports in the Balearic Islands and the rest of Spain. "It's shameful to pay this much for a coffee and pastry. It makes me so angry that, if I can avoid it, I don't have anything. But you can't always. I travel practically every week, and sometimes, on the way back, you have no choice," explains Marta Riera, an executive who works at ARABalears.