Residents Demand Sleep Over Runway Noise — Palma Night Flight Ban Sought

Sleepless from Aircraft Noise: Residents Demand Quiet Between 11 PM and 6 AM

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It's late, the radio is quiet and yet voices from outside rumble — sometimes it's planes. Residents from several neighborhoods in Palma have had enough. In a new initiative they demand that the airport be closed at night between 23:00 and 06:00 for takeoffs and landings. The justification: measurements that indoors reach up to 70 decibels and outside peak at almost 97 decibels.

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The problem affects according to the initiative about 19,000 people. Families, older neighbors and shift workers report repeated sleep disturbances, intense cardiovascular complaints and concentration problems during the day. A mother from El Terreno, whom we met in the afternoon, says: "Our baby wakes up constantly, we are at the end of our tether." Such insights are what fuel the demand.

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Why is night-time special?

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At night the activity on the streets is quieter, ears are more sensitive — and the load lasts longer. The initiative points to studies linking nighttime noise with worse sleep and long-term health consequences. In other European cities there are already regulations with night flight bans or clearly restricted operating times; this is mentioned as an example here.

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On the other side stands airport operations: supply chains, freight flights and connections for travelers. Airport representatives emphasize that a blanket ban could impact the island's economy and connections. Airlines and logistics companies would probably have to replan — that is complicated, they say.

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The debate is now political and local: municipalities, environmental associations and citizen initiatives collect signatures, there are measurement campaigns in bedrooms and on balconies, and in the coming weeks public hearings are announced. Whether politics will follow the call for quiet remains open. I, for one, will keep my ears open — and I won't lay my baby monitor next to the bed so carelessly at night anymore.