This summer, United Airlines will again operate a seasonal service between New York (Newark) and Palma, the capital of the Spanish island of Mallorca (Majorca) in the western Mediterranean.
The popular island attracts visitors worldwide and has rebounded strongly from the pandemic, with Palma de Mallorca Airport (PMI) handling 33.3 million passengers last year, compared to 29.7 million in pre-COVID 2019.
The route was launched in 2022, and last year, it operated three times weekly between May 23 and September 24.
The final service in 2024 was on September 24, when flight UA236 departed Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) at 19:46 and landed in Palma at 09:30 the following day.
The flight was operated with a 2002 Boeing 767-400, registration N76062 and MSN 29457, which took 7:45 hours to cover the 3,935 miles.
The summer curtain fell on September 25, 2024, when flight UA237 departed Palma at 11:57 and arrived at New York Newark at 14:31.
The Boeing 767 may be getting on in years, but it is flying a steady diet of international and domestic flights from Newark and Washington Dulles International (IAD) to destinations including Munich (MUC), Rome (FCO), Honolulu (HNL), Sao Paulo (GRU), Madrid (MAD), San Juan (SJU) and Berlin (BER).
Last Friday, Antonio de Toro, head of sales for United Airlines in Spain, told the Majorca Daily Bulletin there could be flights from Washington to Palma in the near future to complement the existing Newark-New York route.
He said that United's plans are in line with what has been happening with the Newark route - consolidation and monitoring growth, adding:
"Next year or in two years, we could increase the weekly or seasonal frequencies further. If the route continues to grow, we will probably see what has happened in other European destinations, which is the launch of new flights from Washington; we have seen this in Venice and Nice. In Barcelona it has been extended to the whole year."
Those changes will add 50% more capacity compared to the summer of 2024, and overall, the route has grown by 70% since it started three years ago.
With such strong growth, there is significant local interest in turning the seasonal service into a year-round offering.
Discussing the step to year-round services, de Toro said the Palma market had grown "little by little" since 2022, and the country had become a very attractive destination for Americans in recent years.
"It will depend on whether we can identify the demand out of season, on the fleet we have available. But if we see that extension can be justified by demand, of course, we will do it, although when is difficult to know. Our commitment is to grow in Palma and throughout Spain."
Mass travel and tourism are under attack in Europe, with some local communities protesting against over-tourism.
That issue has touched Mallorca, and while de Toro conceded it impacts demand, he said it is not showing up in the booking figures he sees.
He believes that over-tourism has a greater impact on Germany and the United Kingdom and that traffic from North America to Mallorca is not slowing down.
Instead, he points to the fact that traffic is actually increasing and said that "if there is any impact, we are not witnessing it."
