The great majority of domestic flights are to Barcelona and Madrid. | Photo: Miquel À. Cañellas
Andrew EdeBlanca PouPalma13/10/2026 09:39
Lorena del Valle, the Balearic Government's director general for mobility, supports a call to extend the residents' discount to combined air and train tickets.
Justification for this lies with the consequences of Spain's Sustainable Mobility Law, which aims to reduce domestic flights on routes where a train alternative exists with a travel time of under two and a half hours. As well as just sustainability strategies, the disappearance of routes connecting Barcelona or Madrid with other mainland airports is also the result of improved rail services, as trains make the corresponding air services less competitive.
An impact is being felt by travellers from the Balearics. The residents' discount is applied to Balearic airports' flights and to connecting flights within Spain. The great majority of domestic flights from Palma are to either Barcelona or Madrid, the two main hubs. To give an example, a traveller wanting to go to León would have flown to Madrid and then caught the connecting flight. This is no longer possible as there are now no flights to León.
León is an extreme example in that all the flights from Madrid have disappeared, but there have been significant reductions in services to the likes of Zaragoza, Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela. Travellers from the Balearics have to pay the full rail fare.
The Balearic Parliament has in the past pushed for the discount to be applied to mainland rail travel, but has failed to get anywhere. However, the law has mandated that the economic and social impact of air transport subsidies be analysed. This hasn't been undertaken yet; a study should have been presented in early June this year. Del Valle, saying that this study should take rail discounts into consideration, points out that the Balearic Government hasn't in any event been consulted. "Decarbonisation policies," she insists, "must take into account the reality of each territory". And for travellers from Balearics this reality includes mainland rail travel.