Airlines have planned a 1.9% increase in seat supply for this winter at Barcelona airport, below the average for the entire network (5.5%) and that of Madrid-Barajas (10%), according to data from the employers' association Airline Association (ALA). Over the last two years, the airport facilities of the Catalan capital exceeded their theoretical capacity of 55 million passengers, and in the current fiscal year they are on track to do so again. In total, the supply of seats on planes at all Spanish airports will be 145.6 million in the winter season, from this month of October until March of next year.

Tensions between airlines and the Spanish government are escalating. The Airline Association (ALA) threatened on Wednesday to reduce flights to the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla if the Ministry of Transport does not settle the approximately €300 million debt owed for resident discounts. After the government announced it would pay airlines €350 million for this purpose, the sector points out that an additional €300 million remains outstanding. In a statement, the ALA said it "welcomes the €350 million that will be used to cover part of the resident subsidies advanced by airlines in 2025." However, it emphasized that "at least an additional €300 million is still owed to cover the resident subsidies advanced by airlines for flights connecting the mainland with the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla, as well as the interior of the islands."

In the Tintin comic The Crab with the Golden Claws one of the intrepid Belgian reporter's troubles ended with the crash-landing of a seaplane. The ship, shiny yellow and equipped with floats to soften the crash against the waves of the sea, this time exchanged the water for the burning sand of the Sahara desert. In the collective imagination, seaplanes are more a part of war and adventure films than of the usual passenger transport. But among the unforeseeable consequences of the pandemic there has also been a sudden return of these ships to the Països Catalans. Isla Air is a rare avis. An airline based in Palma that was born in a context that has changed the rules of the game in its sector, and flying the flag of an airplane model that only holds 19 passengers. "We had been working on the project for three years, but in the meantime we got caught up in the pandemic", explains Antoni Massana, who is responsible for the Balearic Islands.