Spain’s Transport Minister, Óscar Puente, has ruled out limiting capacity at Balearic airports, including Ibiza’s, as a way of tackling overtourism, sparking an angry response from the regional government in Palma.
Speaking at a business forum in Madrid on Monday, Puente argued that tourist flows should be managed through the supply of accommodation at each destination, not by restricting airports. Aena, the state-owned airport operator, does not decide who travels, he said, but it can size its airports according to the number of passengers expected.
The minister accused the Balearic government of “unbearable hypocrisy” for demanding curbs on airports while, in his view, failing to rein in licences for holiday rentals. He also suggested that higher accommodation prices do not necessarily reduce visitor numbers, but can instead shorten stays and increase turnover.
“He can say what he likes”
The reply came the same day. The Balearic minister for tourism, Jaume Bauzá, said the number of tourist places in the islands is already capped and that Puente could “say what he likes”. He called on the minister to give the regional government a real voice in Aena’s decisions on Balearic airports.
Bauzá’s department points to several measures taken by the government of Marga Prohens: a ban on new holiday-rental places in apartment buildings, a system under which a new tourist place can only be authorised when an existing one is withdrawn, and the removal of around 60,000 illegal rental listings through agreements with online platforms. The government also recalled that Puente’s party, the PSOE, governed the islands for the previous eight years.
Critics note, however, that capping new places does not in itself reduce the number that already exist.
The row comes as Aena works on plans to enlarge Ibiza’s airport terminal, a project that local politicians have questioned, and in the middle of the campaign for the general election on 29 November.
Sources: Periódico de Ibiza y Formentera, Forbes España, El Debate, Ara Balears.
