Palma Airport (Palma de Mallorca International Airport (PMI))

Member Name: hunnybabyuk

Product:	Palma de Mallorca International Airport (PMI)
Date:	19/07/09 (430 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Large, clean, tidy, well air conditioned (usually), great huge selection of flights & airlines

Disadvantages: Price of food & drink (but then most airports are expensive)

Having being working here at Palma airport for the UK's largest tour operater for the past 3 Summers I can tell you that Palma airport is both good and bad.

Palma Airport, known offically as Son Sant Juan Airport with airport code PMI, is operated by AENA the Spanish airport group just like BAA and is 8km east of Palma city centre on the South Coast and is located perfectly on the island to reach all parts of the island including resorts in the East (Sa Coma, Cala D'or, Cala Millor), resorts in the North including Alcudia, Can Picafort & Puerto Pollenca and resorts in the South including Palma Nova, Magaluf and Santa Ponsa.

The airport is easilly accessable by car & bus, with two bus routes currently serving the airport (correct at 18th July 2009), route 1 runs every 20 minutes from Palma City Centre in Plaza Espanya to the airport and route 21 which runs every 30 minutes (in Summer months) and every 60 minutes (in Winter months) from the resort of Arenal to the airport via the resort of Can Pastilla. Both buses cost Euro2 per single journey which works out a LOT cheaper than a taxi, a taxi from Can Pastilla to the airport or vice versa would cost around Euro9 to Euro12 depending ont he time of day. From Plaza Espanya you can catch other EMT (Palma Bus Company) buses to other parts of Palma and the south or go downstairs to the new bus station to catch buses to the rest of the island on the islands other main bus operator, TIB. The buses at the airport stop outside the entrance to departures and at the end of the coach park outside door 4 in arrivals next to the taxi rank.

Once you arrive at Palma airport your greeted with just over 200 checkin desks, Palma airport is one of the largest Spanish airports and has flights to over 100 places by over 80 airlines. Some the biggest airlines fly here including Thomson Airways, Thomas Cook Airlines, Monarch, Easyjet, Air Berlin, Iberia and Spanair.

The checkin is now grouped in handling agents, Jet2/Ryanair use pre-set desks at the far end of the airport (between 1 and 17), all flights handled by Iberia generally use checkins between 18 and 70, AGA use 71 - 75, Menzies/Easyjet use 76 - 85, Spanair use 86 - 97, Air Europa use 98 - 115 then Acciona use the rest, it's not totally set but thats generally how they try to do it so it means airlines generally always have around about the same checkins.

The airline and handling agent service desks are located near the checkins and they are currently moving desks around so they are near the checkin desks that airline uses, theres also a post office located near desk 1 at the far end of the airport and a Sin Barreras desk (wheelchair assistance) for anyone who requires assistance in wheelchairs at the airport which is located in the middle of the checkin hall. Theres 2 small cafes and vending machines located throughout checkin aswell which tend to be rather expensive. Anyone on internal flights i.e those to other Spanish airports can use a special security check point next to the Spanair/Air Europa checkin for all flights departing terminal B.

Once passengers have checked in, they can go upstairs for security, there are escallators going up at the end of every row of checkin desks, theres 2 lifts in the centre of the checkin area located near desk 85 and 3 located at either end of the airport through the glass windows, checkin is on floor 2 with arrivals on floor 0, departures on floor 4 and floor 6 is for staff only as it's offices (there isn't a floor 1, 3 or 5... strange I know).

There are two security check points upstair, one at either end of the airport both lead to the same point so you can go through any of them, before these you have 2 news agents, a bank, 2 cafe/restaurants and a pharmacy.

Once you pass through security your in the airside part of departures, where you have a large cafe, more atm machines and a brand new, recently refurbished duty free shop where you can buy the usual duty free goods and they tend to be reasonably priced but I have found things to be cheaper (even with my staff discount) if I buy it on the aircraft but still cheaper than buying in the UK.

From there you have 4 terminals, A/B/C and D, UK flights NEVER leave from terminal B or D and usually use terminal A however on busy days during the Summer like Tues/Thurs and Sat mornings some UK flights may leave from terminal C. The terminals are connected to the main area by moving walkways, but be warned it's about a 10 to 15 minute walk to the boarding gates from the main security points so remember to give yourself plenty of time to get there.

In each of the terminals you have shops which sell various things including clothes, bags, perfume, alcohol, cigarettes, sweets & chocolates and gifts. You also have cafes & bars including McDonalds, KFC & Pizza Hut (in terminal C), Burger King & Tele Pizza (in terminal A) and smaller bars & cafes in all 4 terminals. Facilities also include toilets & baby changing facilities, baby cots are located in terminal A for night flights and smoking rooms in terminals A & C.

The boarding gates are both fingered and non-fingered meaning some have the walkways directly onto the plane and some don't and require you to get a bus to the plane, so remember when checking in if you can't make it up plane steps to check with the staff at checkin and maybe request assistance.

In Arrivals when your flight lands again it could be on a finger or on a remote stand meaning you get a bus to the terminal, generally for UK flights the bus but pull up next to terminal A where signs on the ceiling will direct you to the exit and baggage reclaim which can also take about 15 minutes to walk. All UK passengers need to pass through passport control so remember to have your passports ready as the queue can sometimes be long depending on how many flights land.

Once your in baggage reclaim there are 3 huge screens at either end and several little TV screens located throughout the baggage reclaim hall to tell you which of the 18 baggage belts your luggage will arrive on, there belts are then numbered and a sign displays which flights are comign up on that belt, generally in the order that they should come out, sometimes a baggage belt can have upto 3 flights on at one time.

Then once you collect your bags, and remember TO COLLECT BAGS BEFORE LEAVING BAGGAGE RECLAIM AS YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO JUST WALK IN & OUT, make your way out of the exit doors where you will find all the tour operator and transfer company desks. Most of the UK operates like Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook, Resort Hoppa and Holiday Taxis are located outside door B & C and the other operators from Germany, Scandinavia, Spain & Sweden are at the other end opposite doors E & F. In arrivals you also have the airports lost property desk next to door B however be aware that this closes at about 2pm and is only for items left or lost at the airport. If you have lost luggage you need to go to your airlines handling agent, the two biggest being Iberia and Acciona which are located near door F both inside the baggage hall and outside it. You also have 2 cafes and a shop which sells magazines and a fantastic pick 'n' mix sweets area but be warned the shop is very expensive especially the pick 'n' mix.

You'll find taxis located on a rank outside door 4 (all external doors in arrivals are number 1 to 7), the taxi rank is supervised by a marshal who will allocate you a taxi, taxis are on a meter and you can expect to pay about Euro30-Euro40 for a transfer to the south resorts of Palma Nova, Magaluf & Santa Ponsa and about Euro70-Euro90 for a taxi to the North resorts of Can Picafort, Alcudia and Pollenca plus the East resorts of Sa Coma, Cala D'or & Cala Millor.

Local buses as described above leave from opposite the taxi rank or you can usually book transfers with Thomson or Resort Hoppa on arrival from about a tenner just go to their desks.

Overall Palma airport is good, it's generally clean and tidy, well lit and when its turned on the air conditioning is fantastic and a great escape from the mid-summer scorching heat. Downside is the price of food & drink here is rather expensive but if your only here 2 hours you could always get something before hand or take sandwiches or something with you, but remember the liquid rules (no liquids over 100ml per container allowed through security) so generally you can't bring drinks.

But the selection of flights and airlines to/from Palma is great with a flying time of about 2 and a half hours from the UK it's a great place to pop to even for a weekend away.

Summary: Great large airport with to much choice