C.M.W.
Maó
The airport and air navigation services operator, AENA, which manages the country's airports, is to invest 352 million euros in the Balearic Islands' airports over the next four year period. This will bring the overall investment since 2004 to around 800 million euros.
Included in the projects for the airport in Menorca are improvements to the runway and the old cargo terminal, the construction of a new sewage farm and the modernisation of the passengers' services area.
On a visit to Son Sant Joan airport in Palma last week the President of AENA, Encarnación Vivanco, spoke of the air operator's guaranteed interest in boosting air traffic in the Balearic Islands through investments which would ensure "quality service" at rates which she considered "very competitive" as they have increased at a lower rate than the consumer price index (IPC). According to AENA's President, in the period between 2000-2008 aeronautical services rates had increased by 2.3% while the IPC had risen by an average 3.2%. Vivanco stressed that the impact on the passenger would be "less than 5 euros" so it would not deter tourists from coming to the archipelago.
Government delegate Ramon Socías stated that the works in the Balearic airports "will improve the quality offered to those who visit us" with the aim that they will receive a good image "on their arrival and departure from the Islands".