Son Sant Joan will be renamed Palma-Mallorca Airport

PalmaThe Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has initiated the procedures to modify the official name of the current Palma de Mallorca Airport, which will be renamed Palma-Mallorca Airport. The Obra Cultural Balear (OCB) has welcomed the decision because it considers that it finally adapts the name of the infrastructure to the official toponymy and puts an end to a designation it describes as illegal.

The entity reported this Friday that it has received the official notification of the start of the procedure to approve the change by ministerial order. During the processing, administrations and entities will have until September 15 to submit allegations.

The president of the OCB, Antoni Llabrés, has valued the decision as "a milestone for respect for legality, official toponymy, and the linguistic heritage of the Balearic Islands". "Today, not only the name of an airport is corrected, but an institutional anomaly that had been maintained for almost forty years is corrected. This decision shows that rigor, perseverance, and institutional dialogue yield results", he stated.

The OCB also thanked the involvement of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, as well as the Secretary of State for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, José Antonio Santano, and the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rosario Sánchez, for making the modification possible.

The initiative dates back to September 2025, when the OCB sent a letter to the Ministry requesting that the official designation of the airport be adapted to the current regulations on toponymy. The entity argued that the official name of the Balearic capital is solely Palma, as reflected in Decree 36/1988, the Statute of Autonomy, the Capital City Law, and the State Register of Local Entities, which since 2017 only recognizes this designation. The request was subsequently reinforced with a meeting with the airport director, Tomás Melgar.

In a first response, the Ministry defended maintaining the reference to Mallorca, taking into account the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which advise facilitating the international identification of airport destinations.

Faced with this argument, the OCB presented in July 2026 a new proposal that reconciled the ICAO criteria with respect for the official toponymy. The entity proposed to replace Aeropuerto de Palma de Mallorca with Aeroport de Palma (Mallorca) or Aeroport de Palma-Mallorca, maintaining the reference to the island without perpetuating the toponym Palma de Mallorca. Finally, the Ministry has opted for the latter formula.

The modification has also been celebrated by the association Fem-ho en Català, which, together with the OCB, promoted several petitions to normalize the naming of the airports in the Balearic Islands. The entity has highlighted that, although its proposal was initially rejected, the Ministry has ended up accepting an amendment that, it assures, respects the official name of Palma.

"We have obtained the inherent respect for the name of Palma, which proves us right in the argumentation we provide, and we find the addition of Mallorca after a hyphen opportune, given that the airport serves the entire island," pointed out sources from the association. Despite the satisfaction with the change in criteria, Fem-ho en Català has announced that it will study the possibility of submitting allegations so that the official designation is entirely in Catalan and appears as Aeroport de Palma-Mallorca. The entity has also congratulated the rest of the organizations that have worked to achieve this modification.