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Airport bus is back
THE airport bus service to Calvia is set to be launched on April 1 ready for the holiday season.
Aerotib was first introduced in 2017, since when thousands of people have used the connection between Palma airport and Camp de Mar via Palmanova, Magalluf, Santa Ponsa, Peguera, Son Caliu and other major tourist hotspots.
The service will run until October 31, with the first bus leaving the airport at 8.15am and the last at 11.45pm, Monday to Sunday.
Return journeys take place from the different resorts and are direct to the airport, ie the service cannot be used to travel to intermediate stops.
Tickets can be bought on board or online in advance at a discount. The price of a ticket between the airport and Palmanova, Magalluf or Santa Ponsa is €4 online or €6.75 on the bus.
Visit the Transports de les Illes Balears (TIB) website tib.org for further information and to book tickets (available in English, search for ‘Route A11’).
IS the use of computers and smartphones good or bad for children?
A team of professors of seven different fields from the Balearic Islands University (UIB) took part in the study, including IT, education, medicine and psychology, and found that children currently spend an average of four hours a day connected to these devices outside of school and up to 71 per cent use them during mealtimes.
While the experts report that screens are not dangerous per se, the risk comes when users neglect other activities such as meeting friends, sport or studying in order to spend more time online.
Recent scientific studies have revealed that the excessive use of computers, smartphones and tablets among children can have a negative impact on five basic cognitive processes, namely perception, attention, memory, language and thought.
Abuse can also eventually lead to psychological and psychiatric problems such as anxiety, anger, attention deficit or hyperactivity.
Spokespeople for the UIB team advise not banning children from using these devices, but instead showing them how to use them correctly, delaying smartphone use ideally until they are teenagers, and encouraging them to take part in other activities.
You’re nicked!
A YOUNG man has been sentenced to four months in prison for filming himself driving very dangerously through the Serra de Tramuntana at top speed in July 2022 and posting the footage on his social networks. He is shown crossing over into the oncoming lane and forcing other drivers to swerve out of the way.
Snow to sand
MALLORCA registered the highest March temperatures since 1981 at the weekend, encouraging hundreds to flock to the beaches just two weeks after Storm Juliette brought record snowfalls and temperatures of 4°C. Friday night in Palma and Pollença was classed as ‘tropical’ with temperatures above 20°C.
Get to work
UNEMPLOYMENT continued dropping in Palma in February, with less people unemployed with regards to January and a whopping 25 per cent less compared to the same month in 2022. This is great news as this is usually the worst time for unemployment, between Christmas and the summer season.
School year
SCHOOL enrolment for children aged up to three years old for the 20232024 academic year began this week. Applications can be done online via the regional Education department websiteIEPI or in person at their chosen school. Parents are advised to hurry, as enrolment closes on April 1.
Big brother
CONCERN arose this week that British tourists are being ‘spied on’ by the Spanish authorities. The National Statistics Institute is reportedly collecting data on where visitors to Mallorca come from, where they stay and for how long as part of a project to calculate tourism statistics this year.
THE Balearic Islands Government is leading a European drive to protect the posidonia oceanica.
Regional Environment councillor Miquel Mir was in Brussels last week to meet European Commission conservation chiefs and discuss a project to launch an EUwide protection scheme for the highly valuable seaweed.
The project will involve 11 countries all along the Mediterranean and will be based on a series of protection drives launched in the Balearic Islands in recent years.
Sr Mir also called on governments to
THE Mallorca Island Council this week presented a project to create 7,000 free parking spaces throughout the island to encourage the use of public transport.
More specifically, the Infrastructure department will build 22 new car parks and renovate 16 existing ones located next to bus and train stops in 21 towns.
None of these will be in Palma, as the plan is to reduce the number of get more involved in marine habitat protection, “especially in the Mediterranean, one of the parts of the world that is most suffering the effects of the
YOUR EWN HAS climate emergency.”
