More guests from China, but no direct flights: What Palma really needs

More guests from China, but no direct flights: What Palma really needs

Rising demand, fragile connections – and the question: Who pulls the emergency brake?

Guiding question: To what extent does the lack of direct flights limit the Balearic Islands' potential for Chinese visitors – and which levers are missing to change that?

The numbers are clear: According to Turespaña's trend report for autumn/winter 2025/26, bookings from China for the Balearics increased by 16.3 percent compared with the previous year. Spain as a whole welcomed almost 648,000 Chinese tourists in 2024, an increase of 66.7 percent compared with 2023. For context on other markets and off-season rescue, see More guests from Austria, Poland and Switzerland: Rescue for Mallorca's off-season?. Nevertheless, there is no direct air bridge between China and Palma: talks about a connection were held, but a concrete plan was abandoned.

This raises important questions. Obviously more Chinese travellers book Mallorca on paper – in practice they arrive via connecting flights in Madrid, Barcelona or other hubs. For travellers this means longer travel times, higher costs and occasional confusion when transferring: luggage, connection times, stress. For hoteliers and excursion providers such obstacles are noticeable because the typical trip becomes shorter and more concentrated.

Critical analysis: The discussion about more guests often remains superficial. Numbers are celebrated, but the infrastructure question – namely flight connections – is too rarely addressed concretely. Why did the direct connection fall apart? Airlines calculate risk, load factor and slot costs. Palma is popular, yes, but seasonal fluctuations and the question of whether a route is profitable year-round inhibit investment decisions. Operational details such as ground handling, Fewer Takeoffs, More Seats: What Really Changes at Palma Airport in December, target-market marketing and distribution partnerships with Chinese travel agencies also play a role.

What is missing from the public discourse: There is hardly any talk about long-term route development. Instead, annual figures and applause dominate, as discussed in When the Germans Stay Away: Opportunity or Risk for Mallorca?. What is missing is a binding plan between the airport, island authorities, the hotel industry and regional airlines: Who offers start-up incentives? Which target groups are being specifically addressed – luxury travelers, cultural tourists, hikers? And: What role do hubs like Madrid play as a bridge – are they a curse or an opportunity?

An everyday scene in Palma: At the taxi rank in front of the airport, one Mercedes after another lines up, Spanish radio hosts talk about the next Ballermann summer, and a hotel porter on the Paseo Marítimo practices English and a few scraps of Chinese because the guests are coming – only often not directly. At the markets in Palma and on Playa de Palma you see translation notes and QR codes, but rarely an end-to-end Chinese-language service offering.

Concrete approaches: First: more support models for inaugural flights. Temporary fee reductions for airlines, marketing cost subsidies and cooperation with Chinese tour operators could secure the early phases. Second: targeted promotion of charter connections in the low season to test demand profiles. Third: better integration with transport hubs – clearer transfer options in Madrid/Barcelona, reliable luggage transfers and coordinated onward offers. Fourth: destination management in Chinese – more Mandarin websites, booking processes, social media campaigns on relevant platforms and training for hotel staff. Fifth: regionally coordinated season planning so that hotels, restaurants and excursion providers can respond more flexibly to new distribution flows.

None of these measures is a cure-all. But combined they create a realistic chance that direct connections will someday become economically viable. The task is not only to count more travelers, but to get them to the island acceptably and serve them.

Pointed conclusion: The rising bookings from China are a signal, not a self-runner. Mallorca is already benefiting from greater demand, but without a coordinated strategy for air links, partnerships and customer-oriented offers, much potential will be left on the track. Those who arrive in Palma should not only realize when changing planes that the island is farther away than expected.