Airline firm comes under attack

EASYJET is under fire from angry Mallorcans for not serving its online customers in Catalan. The storm erupted after one local user asked for help on the airline’s social network site in Catalan, the mother tongue of many islanders. 

In reply he received a message asking him to ‘please write in Spanish, English, Italian, Portuguese, French, German or Dutch.’ Naturally that didn’t go down well with many of the Romance language’s native speakers, estimated at over five million. 

The British low-cost airline has apologised for any offence but said it didn’t have the resources to offer help in all existing languages, even if it would like to. 

Meanwhile, Palma’s airport is readying itself to be the low-cost capital of the Mediterranean in summer 2017. Four new airlines will have official bases at Son Sant Juan next year as the airport continues to break new ground in passenger traffic.

Ryanair, Vueling, Iberia Express and Air Europa already have bases at the airport. To them will be added other low cost kings easyJet, Germanwings, Jet2 and Germania. 

The additions will give Palma more budget airline bases than any of its Mediterranean rivals. This year Son Sant Juan cracked the 26 million passenger mark, the vast bulk of them coming over the summer months. 

The third largest airport in Spain, one of the busiest in Europe, it now offers flights to 30 countries and is set to expand even further next year.