Mallorcan airline Spanair is not going to move its head office to Barcelona as rumoured, reports the company’s spokesman Hector Sandoval. He admits that the move was considered but after a bad year for the airline, in which restructuring took place and a terrible plane crash occurred, any move has been rejected.

Currently 600 people are employed by Spanair at the company offices in Son Sant Joan airport, Palma. Currently Scandinavian carrier SAS owns Spanair, but recently announced that it would be selling its majority stake to a group of Spanish investors based in Barcelona.

Irish airline Ryanair has today opened a new internal Spanish route between the eastern city of Alicante and Mallorca. Flights will leave Alicante at 6:00 every Tuesday and Saturday, arriving at Palma de Mallorca at 7:00. Return flights are on the same days at 7:35 to arrive one hour later.

At the same time, Ryanair has also launched a new route between Alicante and London Gatwick Airport, offering two flights daily. The director of sales and marketing for Ryanair Spain, Luis Fernandez-Mellado said the new routes represented “a very special day for Ryanair … because with the opening of the new routes from Alicante the company now operates between 27 domestic and international destinations across Europe.”

Ticket prices on the new routes are being offered as low as 11 euros each way.

Palma airport will have a difficult end to the year due to a number of planned strikes that will affect air services, according to the Diario de Mallorca. Baggage handlers will convene an indefinite strike to protest the dismissal of four employees from the company Jet2. The secretary of UGT Llorenç Dols said that this show of strength was being convened in direct response to the attitude of Jet2, which, he says, fired the employees unfairly. The start day of the strike will be announced officially today, after a meeting of all unions.

Another planned strike by baggage handlers working for Iberia will also affect travelers. In this case, workers will strike on 21 and 28 November, and again on 5 December. Llorenç Dols said that the reason for these strikes stems from worker dissatisfaction with the negotiations of their working agreements.

The Metro de Palma has managed to reach the 5,500 passengers a day mark during week days, a figure that is far removed from what was originally considered necessary to justify the construction of the suburban transportation system, reports the Diario de Mallorca. Currently the service remains below the number of users on some EMT lines, as in the case of linking the Pont d’Inca and Illetes.

The Regional Mobility body revealed that every weekday the subway has carried some 5,500 passengers since the beginning of the University year, a figure that drops to 1,500 on Saturdays and on 1,000 on Sundays – although at weekends there is only a service every half-hour compared with every 15 minutes during weekdays. These poor usage rates would seem to suggest there will be considerable difficulties reaching the target of 2 million customers a year.

To grasp the relative meaning of these figures during the typical day on 8 October EMT’s registered 28,002 bus passengers on the Pont d’Inca Illetes line, and 16,688 on the Platja de Palma route. That same day, 8 October, the EMT transported 5,264 people on its Universitat Palma line and 3,205 users in the Round of Urbana.

Taking into account the lower demand during the holiday period and weekends, the general manager of mobility, Antoni Verger, admitted that it will be difficult to achieve the two million users annual target, although he stressed that he is doing everything possible to boost the suburban transport service. As an example, he highlighted the link that has been established with the buses that tour the campus of the UIB and the shuttle service to the Parc Bit.

However, he did not conceal the fact that technicians consider the construction of a metro system, given the high cost involved, is justified only when the annual passenger figure is close to 20 million, well short of the expectations in place for Palma.

It is also worth remembering that the cost of construction and subsequent repairs following the floods which occurred has risen to 343 million euros, 46% more than the 235 million originally budgeted. (jh)

The first phase of the ambitious Bay of Palma tram project will involve a link from Palma’s grand central station in the Plaza d’España to Can Pastilla where a link will branch off to Son San Juan Airport.

Apparently, Spanish airport authority AENA has agreed to the public transport service and the airport tram station is expected to be located to the far right of the arrivals coach and car park area outside the terminal.

Phase one of the project will see the tram running down the Avenidas to El Molinar and along the sea front to Can Pastilla via Coll den Rebassa and the Balearic government is confident that the building permission will be granted for the project towards the end of next year so that construction work can get underway early 2010.

Phase two of the project is the link from Can Pastilla to Arenal and rumours have already started circulating about a third phase to run a second main tram link in the opposite direction to Calvia.