Holidaymakers heading to and from Majorca are facing severe airport disruption as two simultaneous strikes threaten to cause complete travel chaos at Palma Airport. Travel experts are urgently advising passengers flying to the Balearic hot spot to ditch checked bags and travel with hand luggage only.
The move allows travellers to bypass bottlenecked check-in desks, bag drop queues, and frozen baggage carousels, heading straight through security instead. A double-whammy of industrial action is currently battering Palma de Mallorca Airport (PMI), threatening major disruption for thousands of summer holidaymakers.
Passengers flying with major carriers – including Ryanair, easyJet, and Jet2 – face widespread operational delays following a 24-hour walkout by technical staff. These workers are responsible for essential airport infrastructure, including baggage belts, sorting systems, and boarding bridges, creating an immediate bottleneck across the entire terminal.
Compounding the travel chaos, Swissport ground staff and baggage handlers are staging targeted partial walkouts during peak daily travel windows. The union action will affect the airport between 7am and 12pm, and again from 7pm until 10pm. Industrial action has been scheduled across four key summer travel dates – July 28, August 1, August 4, and August 8 – meaning travellers face severe delays and queueing at both check-in and baggage collection throughout these peak periods.
The CCOO union confirmed that the action follows Swissport’s “failed to address the main demands raised by workers’ representatives” regarding salary scales and working conditions, according to the Majorca Daily Bulletin.
Passengers should travel with hand luggage only and download digital boarding passes to bypass busy check-in desks entirely. They should arrive strictly two to three hours before departure, as airport bosses warn arriving any earlier will worsen terminal overcrowding. Finally, keep in mind that standard 100ml liquid restrictions still apply at security.
Widespread cancellations are unlikely, but significant gate and tarmac delays are expected.
Under Spanish law, air transport is classified as an essential public service, meaning strikes cannot legally bring an airport to a complete standstill. To protect travellers, the Spanish Ministry of Transport mandates strict minimum service levels that airlines and ground handlers must maintain throughout any industrial action.
These statutory guarantees ensure that emergency, medical and inter-island flights between Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza operate at 100% capacity. Meanwhile, domestic routes to mainland Spain retain 70% to 80% of their normal schedule and high-demand international flights are protected between 50% and 60%. While these decrees prevent widespread cancellations, holidaymakers should still expect longer wait times and terminal bottlenecks.
