Mallorca 6 – 12 April 2023 Issue 1970

THE BEST FINANCE NEWS ON PAGES 16 ­ 20 Issue No. 1970 6 - 12 April 2023

Cameras at the ready

AEROPLANE spotters had a pleasant sur­ prise at the weekend when Lufthansa land­ ed its spectacular Boeing 747 Jumbo at Mallorca airport. The airline activat­ ed the huge carrier in response to the high demand of German travellers looking to fly to the island for Easter. It landed at Son Sant Joan at 5.30pm on Sunday from Mu­ nich with 400 passen­ gers on board, during an extremely busy weekend for the air­ port in which nearly 1,700 flights took off and landed at the site ­ an average of 23 flights every hour. The Boeing 747 Jumbo is a historic aircraft of great inter­ est for aviation en­ thusiasts, as it was the largest passenger plane in the world un­ til the arrival of the Airbus A380 in 2005. Numerous spotters gathered at a vantage point near Son Ferriol neighbourhood to photograph the ar­ rival of the plane on a day that also held an­ other highlight ­ the landing of an Airbus A­340 from Swiss air­ line at 1pm. Lufthansa previous­ ly recovered the Boe­ ing 747 at Easter and from mid­July to mid­ August last year to cater for a surge in German travellers, af­ ter the plane had been taken out of cir­ culation during the two years of Covid travel restrictions.

MALLORCA • EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM

FREE • GRATIS

BY ROYAL (NON) ‘Pirate yacht’ warning APPOINTMENT Image by Frederic Legrand/Shutterstock

Queen Sofia attended the Holy Week charity concert.

PALMA received a surprise double royal visit this week when King Felipe VI dropped in to spend some quality time with his mother Doña Sofía, who was already in Mallorca with her sister. The monarch also followed in the footsteps of Hollywood star Morgan Freeman and chose to dine at trendy Italian restaurant Sandro with a group of friends. Although at the time of go­ ing to press the exact plans of the Royal Family had not yet transcended, it appeared that

they planned to spend their Easter break on the island coinciding with Princess Leonor’s school holidays from the At­ lantic College in Wales. Doña Sofía arrived on the island last week and on Monday attended the tradi­ tional Holy Week charity con­ cert at the cathedral. In an ironic twist of fate, the king’s former brother­in­law Iñaki Urdangarín ­ the dis­ graced ex­husband of Felipe’s sister Cristina who spent time in prison over the Noos cor­

ruption scan­ dal and who is currently em­ broiled in a messy divorce with the Infanta ­ coinciden­ tally also appeared in Mallor­ ca this week, choosing to spend a few days’ holiday with his current partner at a hotel very near to the Marivent royal palace.

THE Balearic Islands nautical sector is accus­ ing the Spanish govern­ ment of legalising the use of private leisure boats for rentals. Under a Royal Decree passed by the central executive in March, as of July 2024 private leisure vessels can be rented out for up to three months a year. The ruling published in the Official State Bulletin authorises “a temporary change from private to com­ mercial use for a period no longer than three months a year”. According to the

Balearic Nautical Busi­ ness Association, the move effectively le­ galises what are known as ‘pirate yachts’, as these practices are re­ portedly usually paid for cash­in­hand with­ out tax and without the safety require­ ments that apply to the official ship charter trade. There are currently an estimated 12,000 private boats regis­ tered in the Balearic Is­ lands, of which 1,500 could be rented out for day trips during the high season under the new law.