<![CDATA[Ara Balears in English - connections]]> 10 <![CDATA[Four islands, one country... New York!]]>

“New York, New York!”, sang Frank Sinatra with his bass-baritone voice and exultant enthusiasm. With the same joy, or more, the news of the new direct flight between El Codolar and New York, specifically with Newark airport, about 24 kilometers from the city, has been received by the Ibizan tourism sector. “Great news for Ibiza”, said the Ibizan Council; a valuation that has been replicated by the Tourism Board, hoteliers, and travel agencies. It is certainly a remarkable fact that an airport named after a pebble beach connects directly with a city of 8.8 million inhabitants, one of the cultural capitals of the world; about 22 million people live in the New York metropolitan area, a figure that helps us calibrate the potential of the destination. The new route will begin in June 2027 with four weekly flights; tickets can already be purchased on the United Airlines website starting at 587 euros, prices that quickly climb towards 1,000 euros or more as the season progresses.

]]> <![CDATA[Where are you?]]> Every day we ask someone where they are. It's a common enough question when we use our mobile phones to talk to our child or to confirm that the friend we were meeting is late. But we hardly stop to think that this question was, until not long ago, quite stupid. Forty years ago and apart from some special context, like a philosophy seminar or a psychiatric hospital, no one asked another person where they were. When we chatted with someone, it was because we had them in front of us or on the other end of the phone line, whose location was well known. All this has lost its meaning with mobile phones.

]]>