The OCB asks Madrid to change the name of Palma airport to conform to official toponymy.

PalmThe Balearic Cultural Organization (OBC) approached the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility to change the official name of Palma de Mallorca Airport to "Palma Airport." To reinforce this request, the OCB met with the airport director, Tomás Melgar.

The president of the organization, Antoni Llabrés, mentioned that "Palma" is the official place name according to the currently valid regional decree 36/1988 of April 14.

Llabrés asks Minister Óscar Puente to ensure that the airport's name complies with current legislation regarding place names and adds that the internationally renowned city of Palma does not require any additions to be correctly identified without causing any confusion. There is no other case of an airport in Spain that uses the name of its island, region, or autonomous community, added to the name of the city, for identification (as would be the case with imaginary "Barcelona Airport in Catalonia," "Málaga Airport in Andalusia," or "Bilbao Airport in Bilbao," "Zaragoza Airport in Aragon"). From an operational and commercial perspective, the IATA (PMI) and ICAO (LEPA) codes leave no room for doubt.

The president of the OCB has recalled that the name 'Palma de Mallorca' does not conform to the historical name of the city that has been included in article 7 of the Statute of Autonomy ("The capital of the Balearic Islands is the city of Palma"), in the title and articles of Law 23/2006, of December 20, 15/2016, of December 23) and in other recent autonomous provisions (such as article 1.3 of the Regulations of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands) and that the only official form, both of the city and its municipal area, is 'Palma'.

As stated in the preamble to Autonomous Decree 36/2011, "The toponymy of the Balearic Islands is a collective heritage that must be safeguarded as part of the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Balearic Islands, as it is a vehicle of information about our language, our history and geography, and constitutes a fundamental pillar of our country's cultural identity." Therefore, Organic Law 1/2007, of February 28, reforming the Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands, establishes, in article 30.2, that the official names of municipalities and toponyms are the exclusive responsibility of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands.

Llabrés also referred to Law 3/1986, of April 29, on linguistic normalization, which regulates the toponymy of the autonomous community. Article 14.1 establishes that the toponyms of the Balearic Islands have the Catalan language as their only official form. Article 14.2 establishes that it is the responsibility of the Government of the Autonomous Community, with the advice of the University of the Balearic Islands, to determine the official names of the municipalities, territories, population centers, intercity communication routes in general, and toponyms of the autonomous community (...). Finally, Article 14.3 establishes that these names are legal for all purposes and, therefore, the labeling must be future.

The OCB conveyed this initiative to the president of Aena, Mauricio Lucena, and met with the airport director, Tomás Melgar, and the chief of staff to the airport director, Diego Llorca, to request support for this request, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility.

Likewise, the OCB will request the support of Palma City Council to join forces and achieve this historic demand. It will also require the use of the name 'Palma Airport', respecting the city's official name, in accordance with Law 23/2006 on the status of capital of Palma and the Registry of Local Entities, and will no longer use it. Llabrés recalled that on Thursday, all democratic political forces represented in Palma City Council opposed a far-right motion, in the debate and subsequent vote in the Citizen Services Commission, which sought to restore the name 'Palma de Mallorca'.