Palma de Mallorca Airport concluded 2024 with a record 33,298,164 passengers, marking a 7 per cent increase compared to 2023.

These figures, just released by Aena, confirm that it has been the busiest year in the airport’s history.

Of the total number of commercial passengers, 9,058,246 flew on domestic routes, a 5 per cent rise, while 24,225,720 travelled on international flights, an increase of 7.8 per cent.

In terms of operations, the airport handled 243,200 flights, up by 6.2 per cent from 2023, setting a new record for aircraft movements.

Passenger Records set in December at Palma de Mallorca Airport

In December 2024, Palma de Mallorca Airport saw 1,082,512 passengers, a 4.2 per cent increase over the same month in 2023. The airport managed 9,573 flights, representing a 2.8 per cent growth.

Of the passengers in December, 656,123 were domestic travellers (+1.1 per cent), while 426,254 were international passengers (+9.4 per cent).

The Aena Group, which operates 46 airports and two heliports in Spain, as well as London-Luton Airport and 17 airports in Brazil, closed 2024 with a total of 369,444,029 passengers, an 8.5 per cent increase from 2023. The group managed 3,203,747 aircraft movements, a 7.1 per cent rise, and handled 1,421,640 tonnes of cargo, an 18.1 per cent increase.

In December 2024, Aena Group airports processed 26,925,911 passengers, up by 7.2 per cent from the previous year.

Although there is no history of successful Dutch rock groups outside of the Netherlands, there is still plenty of export money to be made from current trends.

Looking back, it’s hard to find more than a handful of successful Dutch rock bands that were successful outside of their homeland with probably Alquin, Focus, Golden Earring,  Shocking Blue and Supersister making up that that handful.

The Netherlands earned record foreign income from House Music performances in 2024

Where the Dutch are currently particularly strong is in the area of House Music and according to research commissioned by Buma Cultuur, this genre represented foreign earnings of €136 million in 2024 which accounts for 62 per cent of the grand total of €220 million.

This total figure represents a new record and beat the 2018 record by 11 per cent with the top four Dutch DJs and producers appearing outside of the Netherlands on 410 occasions in 2024 with the most in demand being Franky Rizardo.

It’s not just House Music that is popular as  performances by André Rieu were in great demand around the world

One of the more traditional Dutch musicians, violinist and conductor André Rieu proved to be very popular with foreign audiences and although he performed more than once a week outside of the Netherlands, he has also earned an enormous amount from TV and DVD recordings of his massively popular concerts.

Until Brexit, the UK probably earned more overseas performance earnings than any other European country but although the top performers such as Elton John, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran can still afford to tour internationally, new rules and regulations have made it increasingly difficult for up and coming artists to take part in many European events.

Rafael Nadal and hotel entrepreneur Abel Matutes Prats have partnered up to develop two large luxury residential projects on the Costa del Sol. 

The Junta de Andalucía has just approved one, the licence for the urban development in the Los Llanos sector, in Estepona, for its attention to environmental sustainability. This approval suggests that the Estepona council plans to approve the development in its next Plenary, scheduled for January.

The initiative includes Palya Invest, based in the Balearic Islands, which owns Palya Casa del Mar, whose board includes Abel Matutes Prats and Sebastián Nadal Homar, Rafa Nadal‘s dad. The project aims to reduce the area of construction for better urban management. The road leading to the project includes a design to create better access to the beach for everyone.

The new remodelled concept is to construct detached homes and semi-detached houses reducing considerably the footprint of each construction, which is estimated to be some 50 houses with 3 floors, and adding many more trees as well as maintaining as many existing ones as possible.

The Los Llanos plot was purchased by Mabel Casa for about €20 million at the end of 2019, making it one of the last virgin real estate developments by the sea on the Costa del Sol.

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