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Last Sunday Was One of the Busiest Days in Mallorca's Airport

A large number of passengers and flights caused long delays

featured in News & reviews Author Ana Hernández, Mallorca Editor Updated

The end of August brought crowds to Palma's Son Sant Joan airport following a very good summer season for the island's tourist industry. Sunday saw a total of 548,000 passengers and 3,300 flights, 150 of them delayed.

A plane doing the Frankfurt-Palma route broke records with a delay of more than six hours. The airport registered 73 delayed outbound flights and 77 late arrivals.

This unusual activity was due mainly to the Spanish phenomenon of the "operación salida" or "operation exit". This yearly summer exodus is because Spaniards tend to take 15 days or a whole month off in summer to escape the cities, meaning that traffic is especially busy at the beginning, middle and end of July and August.

Additionally, Palma's airport has seen more travellers this year than any other, with more than 3.5 million flyers in July, a 1.5% more than 2014.