Airports on Spain holiday islands Mallorca and Ibiza getting ready to receive EU tourists in late June

THE Balearic Government has high expectations EU tourists will be flying back into the islands’ airports by the end of June following a meeting between the regional president and the Spanish Transport Minister.

Minister for Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Jose Luis Abalos, reassured Balearic administration head Francina Armengol in Thursday’s videoconference that the Government is working towards the reopening of Mallorca’s Son San Joan and the other airports to international traffic at the end of next month, when phase three of the lockdown de-escalation should end.

What will be the final phase of the de-escalation plan is scheduled to start on June 8 and run until June 22.

“Minister Abalos confirmed to me that the Spanish Government is working according to these guidelines to guarantee the right of movement for European and Spanish citizens”, Armengol commented after the meeting.

The Balearic President said Abalos had explained that airport operator AENA is “already working on the necessary protocols for the reopening of airports to international flights on these dates.”

Armengol pressed the same point to the Transport Minister as she did to the Industry, Trade and Commerce Minister Reyes Maroto earlier in the week, that the Balearic Islands are prepared to carry out pilot tests on reopening air connections from the second fortnight of June.

“We have the pandemic situation under control with our health system, the tourism business people and the trade unions are working on adapting facilities and opening safely as soon as possible, and the Government has all the workplace safety protocols for workers”, she stressed.

The videoconference between Armengol and Abalos had been set up to discuss the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic and what it means for the reestablishment of air travel at the end of the lockdown de-escalation process and once restrictions on travel are lifted.

Both the Minister and the Balearic President agreed on the need for both the national and regional administrations to follow the guidelines set out by the European Commission on Wednesday on the recovery of air travel.