Passengers flying from and to Palma Airport faced severe delays today due to a rare, thick fog descending on the area. The airport on the Balearic island of Majorca, popular among Brits, started experiencing issues in the early hours of the morning on Thursday.
Spain’s airport operator AENA warned of “significant delays” earlier today, as the busy summer period is about to peak, due to the weather. Flights had to be rescheduled for visibility issues, with passengers facing hours of delays at the height of the disruption.
Earlier today, a few travellers took to X to complain about delays – although it wasn’t immediately clear whether the issues being experienced by their flights were linked to the fog.
One, addressing Ryanair at 1.44pm BST, wrote: “Any update on FR1169 due to depart Palma at 8h this morning? Departure time now scheduled for 17:16. Passengers in the airport for 9 hours with very little communication or support.”
Another, also asking for updates to Ryanair at 2.19pm BST, wrote: “Have been waiting in Palma Airport since 8am for flight to Shannon, it’s now 15.20 and we have been given zero information all day, is there any way we can get an update???”
Issues appeared to still be affecting flights at the time of writing, with WizzAir, easyJet and Jet2 flights due to leave the airport between 10.25pm and 10.55pm local time all being delayed.
The weather phenomenon at the centre of today’s delays is known as summer fog, the Majorca Daily Bulletin wrote, and can develop along the Balearic coast due to a mix of high humidity, light overnight winds and temperature difference between air and sea.
The fog descended on Majorca’s airport as the island is one of the many areas in Europe experiencing a heatwave.
An amber warning for heat was put in place today, in the southern areas of the island.
