FLUG REVUE May 2002: Mallorca airport report

HOLIDAY HUB PALMA DE MALLORCA

By Christiane Rodenbücher

Long stretches of coastline, beaches bathed in the glistening February morning sunshine – as the first fingers of rock, caressed by the Mediterranean waves, come into view from the windows of the Boeing 737-800, a sigh passes through the rows of sun-hungry passengers who have reached their destination of Mallorca (Majorca) from Cologne/Bonn in just under two hours.

The jam-packed 737 makes its approach to Mallorca's Son San Joan airport towards the south-west and touches gently down at 240 km/h on runway 24R at an external temperature of 10ºC. Radiant blue sky greets the travellers who are collected from the airport terminal by smiling travel guides for transfer to Palma, the capital city and tourist centre of the island ten kilometres away, and to other parts of the island.

For holidaymakers from Germany the Balearic Islands continue to exercise the same attraction as before. As in previous years, more Germans travel to Mallorca than any other nationality, although in 2001 the number of German passengers, at 6.5 million, was 6.7 per cent down on the previous year. Even so, the Germans are ahead of the British by a lead of two million. Holidaymakers from Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain account for over 80% of the total of 19.2 million people flying to Palma. Since 1990 passenger numbers have increased steadily and have almost doubled. For the first time in ten years, Son San Joan airport experienced a slight drop in passengers in 2001 – 200,000 fewer – compared with the previous year.

“Mallorca's airport is given over almost entirely to tourism, and hence it is always dependent on the extremely volatile tourist sector and the economies of individual European countries,” says public relations officer Mateo Cladera Matas, explaining the situation at his “incoming” airport of Son San Joan. “A lot of Germans also have a house here, which naturally works to our advantage.”

20 million passengers had apparently been expected in Mallorca for 2001. However, that number was not achieved, and not simply due to the terrorist attacks and the general crisis in aviation. “People are changing their booking behaviour. A lot of holidaymakers only decide to take a holiday at the last minute, taking up the bargain offers on the internet, and then they fly to Turkey, Egypt or Mallorca,” says Cladera.

For three years now there has been an ever more pronounced decline in forward bookings. “For 2002 we have 20% fewer flights booked than the previous year.” In his view the 20 million passenger threshold is still achievable in 2002 if the last-minute market works to the advantage of Mallorca.

The biggest problem for the airport according to Cladera is its heavy dependence on the high season: over half the passengers handled in Mallorca arrive between June and September. During those months Son San Joan handles about 2.5 million passengers per month, whereas during the winter months the number of passengers fluctuates between 500,000 and 800,000. Moreover, during the summer months traffic is concentrated on two days in the week, Saturday in the case of the Germans and Sunday for the English visitors. On many days during the summer months over 143,000 passengers use the airport, compared with only 80,000 on other days. The ceiling on capacity is 160,000 passengers in any one day.

“We are faced with the difficult task of persuading the tour operators to stagger their operations and move more flights to weekdays. Naturally it is in the interests of the tour operators to concentrate on one particular day of the week, but the airport cannot offer the same service with this onslaught of passengers as on less popular days.”

Mallorca's airport is dependent on the tour operators, explains Cladera. Separate marketing for Mallorca flights would be pointless, he believes, as most tourists buy their holiday in the Balearics in the form of a package tour.

The organisers are very successful at filling the planes that fly to Mallorca. In 2001, the airport clocked up almost 170,000 take-offs and landings, which is actually quite low when one considers the numbers of passengers carried. Copenhagen airport, for example, handles a similar volume of passengers but with the emphasis on business travel rather than tourism, and this generates almost twice as many aircraft movements. Mallorca on the other hand is served by larger aircraft and enjoys better utilisation. The types flown most frequently are the Boeing 737 and 757, the MD-80 and the Airbus A320.

The biggest airline at Son San Joan airport continues to be the private Spanish airline, Air Europa, with about two million passengers in 2001, followed closely by Spanair. The Spanish charter carriers Air Europa, Spanair, Futura and Iberworld all have their home base on Mallorca.

But the development that was the most significant for the airport in 2001 originated from Germany. “Air Berlin has enjoyed enormous growth and has undergone a 37.4% increase in passengers to over 1.7 million – an unbelievable increase in a single year,” says the head of the public relations office. According to Cladera, Air Berlin is pursuing a new customer policy of lower prices, and this is proving very successful. The German airline has one of the youngest fleets in the whole of Europe. The average age of its aircraft is less than two years. The backbone of its fleet is the B 737-800. On the other hand, Condor's position on the island is not quite so rosy: in 2000 the Lufthansa subsidiary was still in second place among the airlines serving Mallorca, yet in 2001 it suffered a decline in passengers of over 16% and was relegated to fourth place with just under 1.7 million passengers.

Air Berlin was the first airline to make Mallorca a hub for the months of November to March. Since then, Condor, Hapag Lloyd and Britannia have all followed suit. During the winter months flights are operated to Mallorca from 17 cities in Germany, carrying passengers en route to seven destinations in Spain and Portugal. However, the number of transit passengers is very low, only around 70,000 in 2001. “This segment is expected to grow in the future, but whether that really happens will depend on the financial situation of the airlines. If things go well, it is possible that further connections could be added,” says Cladera.

General Aviation is steadily gaining in importance in Palma: in 2001 Euro 2.8 million flew into building a new GA terminal. The apron has been enlarged as well, at a cost of Euro 3.6 million. A total of 24 parking places are now available in the GA terminal area for aircraft such as the Citation 525, Falcon 50, Beech King Air and the Learjets that are frequently flown to Mallorca by well-to-do private individuals. “The General Aviation terminal is very important to us,” says Cladera. “A lot of holidaymakers have their own boat here, while others have a plane, and we plan to be well placed to handle this traffic.”

A new air freight building is also planned for 2002, along with replacement of the tarmac surface on the northern runway (Euro 1.4 million) and extension of the area to the south with a new taxiway and a high-speed exit taxiway for the southern runway (Euro 9.9 million). An additional fifth module, adjacent to the terminal, is under construction at the moment. When complete, this will be devoted to Spanish regional traffic. Son San Joan airport is investing a total of Euro 55 million in the years 2001 to 2003.

“If I was allowed one wish,” Cladera confesses, looking ahead, “Then I would wish that Palma could become a transfer airport for European transit passengers en route to the USA. At present all this traffic goes through Madrid. Naturally it would be possible to expand for such a project,” Cladera says with a laugh, admitting that at present such plans are only of an illusionary nature.

From FLUG REVUE 5/2002

Last updated 10 April 2002

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