The flight plight of the pensioners
owners are said to be interested in having one, the hotel's management company, Four Seasons, wanting guests to be able to arrive by all
means of transport - land, sea and air. No application for a licence has been made, and it's highly debatable if it would ever be granted. But a story this week seemed to imply that rather more than a helicopter might be landing in Formentor in the future - an Airbus.
Four Seasons will be offering its own luxury Airbus for charter. It has to be said that there was nothing specific about the hotel in the report, merely the Four Seasons association. Who knows though? The military base more or less next door has an air strip, but an Airbus would probably not be possible.
Palma Son Sant Joan Airport would obviously be a different matter, so long, that is, that the Airbus in question hasn't developed a technical fault. Charter airline Iberojet has Airbus planes at its disposal, and last Friday Iberojet was due to have flown 192 Spanish pensioners from Palma to
Malaga. These were pensioners on an Imserso holiday. They had been staying in Arenal and had arrived at the airport at 5.45am for an 8am flight. Fourteen hours later the flight took off. There had been a technical fault. Their plight attracted a great deal of attention. There was criticism of a lack of information, and
at one point the pensioners considered blocking boarding gates as a means of protest.
Much was made of the fact that some of them had “important medication” that was in luggage that had been checked in to the hold. Access was given to suitcases, but it was perhaps reasonable to ask why medication, if it was important, hadn't been in hand luggage. There again, they probably hadn't bargained on a 14hour delay.