Palma de Mallorca Airport

Palma de Mallorca Airport — also known as Son Sant Joan Airport – is an international airport located east of Palma, Mallorca, Spain, adjacent to the village of Can Pastilla.

In 2024, the airport handled 33.3 million passengers, making it the third busiest airport in Spain, after Madrid–Barajas and Barcelona–El Prat; and the fourteenth in Europe. The airport is the main base for the Spanish carrier Air Europa and also a focus airport for Eurowings, EasyJet, Jet2.com, Ryanair and Vueling. The airport shares runways with the nearby Son Sant Joan Air Force Base, operated by the Spanish Air and Space Force.

History Early years The interest of the Spanish Government in developing airmail during the first decades of the 20th century, led to a study of the possibility of establishing an air mail line to the Balearic Islands. Finally, in 1921, the company Aeromarítima Mallorquina established the postal line Barcelona – Palma, which used seaplanes in the port of Palma de Mallorca. Before the creation of this airline, trials were complete in two flat fields: Son Sant Joan and Son Bonet, both of which were later chosen for the construction of aerodromes.

In 1934, the company Aero-Taxi de Mallorca was created with the intention of starting tourist flights to the island, establishing a flight school in Son Sant Joan. A year later, another one was founded in Son Bonet.

In May 1935 the company LAPE, Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas (Spanish Postal Airlines), a predecessor of Iberia; was founded. A month later, in August, the first regular air route between Madrid and Palma, stopping at Valencia, was created using the Son Sant Joan aerodrome. A year later, this line was replaced by a new one connecting Palma and Barcelona. Three years later, Lufthansa and Iberia established new lines in Son Bonet, while Son Sant Joan was beginning to be used by the military. Through the years, Son Bonet became the main civilian airport on the island, while the creation of Son Sant Joan Air Force Base limited further civilian enterprises at the aerodrome.

In 1954, the runway was enlarged and paved to enable the operation of F-86 Sabre fighters, which also meant the diversion of the Palma–Llucmajor road. During those years, the first paved taxiways and aprons were built, while Son Bonet received the first big groups of European tourists through the airlines BEA, Air France and Aviaco.

International airport The increase in traffic, and the inability to enlarge Son Bonet led the authors of the 1958 National Airport Plan to propose building a large civilian airport near the Son Sant Joan airbase. The National Airport Council approved this plan the following year and commercial traffic was transferred from Son Bonet to Son Sant Joan. This was the birth of what today is known as the Palma de Mallorca Airport. During that year, a terminal and a civilian apron were built south of the military facilities, along with a VHF communication center. Also, a VOR was installed on the island.

Finally, on 7 July 1960, the airport was opened to both domestic and international traffic.

Just two weeks later, expansion of the airport was declared urgent by the government, and on summer 1961 the works of extension of the runway and taxiway were started. At the end of the year, more plans were made, including a power plant, a communications centre and fire and rescue facilities.

Growth since the 1960s In 1980, passenger growth led to the construction of yet another new terminal building, the current central terminal building. This building is now the airport's primary entrance and exit and houses the airport's check-in and baggage claim areas. Construction started in mid-1993 and it was designed by the Majorcan architect Pere Nicolau Bover. During the construction in 1995, passenger numbers exceeded 15 million. The new terminal finally opened in 1997.

Development since 2000 Following a decline in passenger numbers at the airport following the September 11 attacks in 2001, passenger numbers rose steadily between 2002 and 2007 when traffic peaked at 23.2 million passengers. From 2007 onward there was a decline in passenger numbers, with 21.1 million using the airport in 2010. Today, Palma de Mallorca airport carries over 29.7 million passengers per year to their destinations, with 178,253 aircraft movements, mostly to mainland Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom.

In November 2015, Air Berlin (1978–2017) announced that it would shut down its hub operations at the airport which it had maintained for over ten years. All seven domestic connection routes to the mainland, such as flights to Valencia, Bilbao and Sevilla, as well as the route to Faro in Portugal ceased during spring 2016.

In June 2024, torrential rains flooded the airport, leading to delays.

Terminals

Palma de Mallorca Airport occupies an area of . Due to rapid growth of passenger numbers, additional infrastructure was added to the two terminals A (1965) and B (1972). This main terminal was designed by local architect Pere Nicolau Bover and was officially opened on 12 April 1997. The airport now consists of four modules: Module A (the former Terminal A Building), Module B (the former Terminal B Building), Module C and Module D (the last two were completely new sets of buildings and gates that opened along with the new central terminal and check in area in 1997). The airport can handle 25 million passengers per year, with a capacity to dispatch 12,000 passengers per hour.

Module A The former Terminal A Building is located in the north of the airport and has blue signs. It has 28 gates eight of which have airbridges. This is the only module that has double airbridges attached to gates. The Pier is mainly used by flights to non-Schengen destinations, including the UK and Ireland. This part of the terminal building used to be closed during winter months and is only used in the summer. For winter 2018/2019 it remained open.

Module B The former Terminal B Building is the smallest module, located in the north east and has green signs. It has eight gates located on the ground floor, none of which have airbridges. It is used by regional aircraft of Air Nostrum.

Module C The largest of the modules located in the east and has purple signs. It has 33 gates, nine of which have airbridges. It is used mainly by Eurowings and Condor along with EasyJet and Norwegian Air Shuttle flights to Schengen destinations. The southern area of the module was worked on and reopened in May 2010. The refurbishment and expansion is so that the module can handle more flights, and to improve ways to get into the pier as it is the longest walk from security control. There will also be a further eight gates with airbridges, but there will still be 33 in total.

Module D This is located in the south and has orange signs. It has 19 gates of which 10 have airbridges. All odd numbered gates are gates with a bus transfer. During the closure of the southern area of Module C, it was used mainly for flights to Europe.

On 4 November 2025, Module D closed for roof renovations and an interior refurbishment. It is planned to reopen in April 2026.

Other facilities Previously Spanair (1986–2012) had its head office in the Spanair Building on the airport property." Both Futura International Airways and Iberworld had large operational offices on the premises of the airport but these are no longer in use.

Airlines and destinations Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Palma de Mallorca Airport:

Cargo

Statistics

Annual traffic

+ Traffic by calendar year Passengers Movements Cargo (kilos)200019,424,243 176,997 25,156,479200119,206,964 169,603 23,068,964200217,832,558 160,329 20,412,784200319,185,919 168,988 19,935,677200420,416,083 177,859 20,408,137200521,240,736 182,028 21,025,694200622,408,427 190,304 22,443,596200723,228,879 197,384 22,833,556200822,832,857 193,379 21,395,791200921,203,041 177,502 17,086,478201021,117,417 174,635 17,292,240201122,726,707 180,152 15,777,101201222,666,858 173,966 13,712,034201322,768,032 170,140 12,236,854201423,115,622 172,630 11,462,907201523,745,023 178,254 11,373,639201626,254,110 197,640 10,452,860201727,950,655 208,787 10,191,2362018 29,081,787 220,329 10,018,0452019 29,721,123 217,218 9,021,6062020 6,108,486 76,851 6,732,8802021 14.496.857 141.189 6.754.7912022 28.573.364 220.690 7.592.1082023 31.105.987 228.920 7.184.3522024 33.298.164 243.200 6.756.4722025 33,806,427 246,486 5,836,421 Source: Aena Statistics

Busiest routes + Busiest international routes from PMI (2025) Rank Destination Passengers Change 2024/25 1 Düsseldorf 1.352.905 -1,9% 2 Cologne/Bonn 984.655 0,7% 3 Frankfurt 951.179 -1,5% 4 Berlin 917.509 5,4% 5 Hamburg 839.035 -14,5% 6 Zurich 749.879 3,3% 7 Manchester 749.168 -2,9% 8 Munich 745.364 -2,7% 9 London-Gatwick 683.797 -5,7% 10 Stuttgart 648.814 2,6% 11 Vienna 582.548 7,7% 12 Bristol 483.736 0,9% 13 Birmingham 468.983 3,6% 14 Hannover 465.440 0,4% 15 London-Stansted 458.641 -3,4% 16 Nuremberg 443.272 0,4% 17 Amsterdam 435.296 9,2% 18 Paris-Orly 434.802 5,4% 19 London-Luton 428.486 19,3% 20 Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden 375.404 14,4% Source: Estadísticas de tráfico aereo

+ Busiest intercontinental routes from PMI (2025) Rank Destination Passengers Change 2024/25 1 Newark 32.107 47,3% 2 Nador 25.381 9,4% 3 Marrakesh 19.908 2,5% 4 Fès 18.417 7,6% 5 Algiers 12.885 0,7% Source: Estadísticas de tráfico aereo

+ Busiest domestic routes from PMI (2025) Rank Destination Passengers Change 2024/25 1 Barcelona 2.387.129 2,8% 2 Madrid 2.221.374 0,7% 3 Valencia 661.960 -7,9% 4 Ibiza 565.221 -2,5% 5 Seville 496.544 -5,7% 6 Alicante 436.282 -11,9% 7 Málaga 402.871 5,6% 8 Menorca 385.796 -5,2% 9 Bilbao 313.230 -0,1% 10 Santiago de Compostela 255.171 3,2% 11 Granada 202.775 9,4% 12 Zaragoza 147.380 3,3% 13 Asturias 144.443 20,5% 14 Gran Canaria 63.194 -22,7% 15 Jerez de la Frontera 61.835 -24,8% 16 Tenerife North 54.147 53,1% 17 Vitoria 30.963 5,5% 18 Santander 30.350 15,0% 19 León 19.191 14,8% 20 Vigo 18.848 11,9% Source: Estadísticas de tráfico aereo

Passengers by airline + Passengers by airline at PMI (2023) Rank Airline Share Passengers Change 2022/23 1 Ryanair 25,9% 8,042,745 10% 2 Eurowings 12,8% 3,990,754 8% 3 Vueling 10,4% 3,230,963 11% 4 EasyJet 8,1% 2,527,009 8% 5 Air Europa 5,9% 1,832,489 4% 6 Iberia 5,5% 1,718,324 14% 7 Condor 5,1% 1,592,680 7% 8 Jet2.com 4,2% 1,298,203 13% 9 TUI Airways 2,8% 862,954 1% 10 Transavia 1,6% 497,472 12% 11 TUI fly Deutschland 1,5% 456,630 3% 12 Swiss International Air Lines 1,3% 393,669 18% 13 British Airways 1,3% 369,096 22% 14 Norwegian 1,1% 352,788 12% 15 Lufthansa 1,1% 343,426 27% Source: Estadísticas de tráfico aereo

Accidents and incidents On 4 January 1991, Douglas DC-3 EC-EQH of Aeromarket Express overran the runway on a cargo flight to Menorca Airport and was damaged beyond repair. On 8 March 1993, Douglas C-47A EC-FAH of Aeromarket Express crashed on take-off while on a cargo flight to Madrid–Barajas Airport. Both crew were killed. On 12 April 2002 Tadair Flight 306 operated by a Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner EC-GKR a cargo flight from Madrid–Barajas Airport to Palma de Mallorca. Flight 306 crashed on landing on runway 24L, killing both pilots. In June 2024, sudden floods shut down the airport. The water damaged the runways and terminal building. On 5 July 2025, Ryanair Flight 2484 to Manchester experienced a false fire alert while taxiing for take off which caused panic among the passengers with some attempting to evacuate the aircraft. 18 individuals sustained light injuries.

See also ENAIRE

References

External links