Palma Airport
Palma de Mallorca Airport, also known as Son Santjoan International Airport or simply as Palma Airport (IATA: PMI, ICAO: LEPA) is a Spanish Aena airport located 8 km from the city centre of Palma de Mallorca.
Palma Airport it is strategically located between the summer resorts of the bay of Palma (S’Arenal) and the city, on the site of a former military base still in existence.
It was inaugurated in the 1960s, the time of the great tourist boom in the Balearic Islands, to replace the old Son Bonet Airport (which is still in operation). Nearby is also the Son San Juan Air Base, operated by the Spanish Air Force, with which it shares runways.
The Government’s interest in developing air mail led, at the end of the first decade of the 20th century, to the study of the possibility of establishing a postal airline in the Balearic Islands. Finally, in 1921, the company Aeromarítima Mallorquina was awarded the Barcelona-Palma postal line, using seaplanes that landed in the port of Palma for the service. Before the start of the line, test flights had been made in the fields of Son Santjoan and Son Bonet, where a private aerodrome was finally installed.
In 1934, the Aero-Taxi de Mallorca company was created with the aim of organising tourist flights to Mallorca. This company opened a flying school using the existing airfield at Son Santjoan as a flying site. A year later, it set up a flying school at the Son Bonet aerodrome.
In May 1935, the company LAPE (Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas), the predecessor of Iberia, was founded. Months later, in August, the first regular flight between Palma and Madrid was inaugurated, with a stopover in Valencia, using Son Santjoan as the airport. A year later, this route was replaced by the Palma-Barcelona route. Three years later, Lufthansa and Iberia inaugurated new routes based at the Son Bonet aerodrome, as the Son Sant Joan aerodrome was used by military aviation.
In 1954, while Son Sant Joan was still a military air base (and Son Bonet was the airport used for commercial traffic), its runway was extended and asphalted to allow Sabre F-86 jets to operate, which meant that the road from Palma to Llucmajor had to be diverted beforehand. During these years, the aircraft parking apron and the parallel taxiway were built at the same time as the first large groups of European tourists arrived at Son Bonet with the BEA, Air France and Aviaco airlines.
From Palma Airport to City by a Palma airport taxi will take about 20 minutes
Airport website: https://www.palma-airport.info