Empty leg flights to and from Palma

Palma de Mallorca is the eleventh busiest business aviation airport in Europe and the busiest in the Balearics. In July 2026 it handled 2,088 private movements, an average of 67 a day and one flight in every fifteen that used the airport. A word on the name before anything else: Palma is the city and the airport, Mallorca is the island, and Majorca is how British airlines and tour operators still spell the island. Handlers and flight plans call the airport Palma de Mallorca.

The reason so many of those movements turn into empty legs is written into the aerodrome rules. Between June and September an aircraft longer than twenty metres may stand on the general aviation apron for seven days and no longer, stands are scarce for the whole summer, and Spanish airport charges went up again in 2026 with parking rising fastest of all. Aircraft drop their passengers and go.

Empty legs to and from Palma right now

Every sector our operator network has released into or out of Palma appears on the board below. When Mallorca itself is quiet, the board adds flights at Ibiza, Menorca, Valencia and Barcelona instead, because half an hour or so in the air links any of the Balearics with any other and with the nearest mainland airports.

Also moving across the rest of the Balearics and the Spanish mainland

Sectors on this list do not touch Palma itself. They are shown because the fields are close enough that the drive rarely costs you more than waiting for the right sector does. Tell us which one interests you and we will confirm it is still open.

Where Palma sectors come from

Three mechanisms push aircraft away from Mallorca with the cabin empty, and all three run hardest in exactly the months you want to fly.

The aircraft themselves tell you what to expect on the board. Mallorca is a light and midsize market rather than a heavy one: the workhorses on the British routes are the Citation XLS and its stablemates, the Phenom 300 and the smaller Citations, and a heavy jet on a Palma sector is the exception. That is why a crossing from Britain usually seats six to eight rather than twelve, and why the discount on a Balearic empty leg tends to run deeper than on the long routes, where the aircraft is expensive enough that the operator will wait for a paying charter.

Palma de Mallorca Airport in detail

Son Sant Joan is a large commercial airport with a general aviation operation tucked into one corner of it, on an apron of its own.

Two of those lines do most of the work. The compulsory handler explains why a Palma flight cannot be arranged quite as casually as a domestic British one, and the fourteen day coordination window explains why in June an August stand can only be called possible, not booked. Two more points are worth knowing: Palma has no night curfew, and outside the April to September window a private flight does not need a slot at all.

The general aviation terminal and its handlers

Private flights use a terminal of their own, on its own apron with a separate road entrance, well away from the commercial modules and their thirty three million passengers. The aerodrome rules name two sets of companies. Two are authorised by the airport as general and business aviation managers, which is what lets a passenger enter through the general aviation terminal at all. Seven, including those two, are approved as ramp agents and may look after the aircraft itself. Which of them meets you is settled by your operator rather than by you, so it is worth knowing who is who.

You do not choose the handler, but you can ask which one the operator uses before you book, and the answer tells you which door your car will stop at and whose lounge you will wait in. They all work out of the same building, so the difference is in the room and the service rather than in the distance to the aircraft.

The terminal from a passenger's side

What actually happens between the car and the seat, in the order it happens, for a British passenger arriving at Palma or leaving it.

The one thing worth planning around is food. A commercial passenger expects to eat at the airport; a private passenger at Palma should either eat before leaving the villa or tell the handler a day ahead what to put on board.

Four rules that shape a Mallorca trip

None of this makes Mallorca difficult. Handlers deal with it daily and the island takes more private traffic than anywhere else in the Balearics. It does mean that a Palma trip planned three weeks ahead goes more smoothly than one planned three days ahead, and that the aircraft leaving without you is the normal outcome rather than a sign that something went wrong.

What the ground costs on Mallorca

Spain charges no passenger tax on private flights, which makes the arithmetic here simpler than in Italy or France. What you do pay falls into three groups, and only the first appears on the charter invoice.

The tourist tax is the one visitors ask about, and it is smaller than the coverage suggests. In high season, which runs from 1 May to 31 October, it is 4 euros a person a night at a five star or four star superior hotel, 3 euros at a four star or three star superior, 2 euros at everything from a one to three star hotel up through tourist apartments, rural hotels and registered holiday rentals, and 1 euro in a guest house or a campsite, with ten per cent of Spanish VAT added on top. Children under sixteen pay nothing and the rate halves from the ninth night. From 1 November to 30 April it drops to roughly a quarter of those figures rather than disappearing.

Much was made of a rise in those rates for 2026, taking the top band to 6 euros and adding a summer surcharge. It did not happen: the increase was shelved for want of votes in the Balearic parliament and the rates above are the ones in force. In September 2026 the Balearic government also ruled out a rise in its budget for 2027, but the subject keeps returning, so confirm the figure with the hotel when you book rather than trusting a number from a news story.

Hire cars are the other recurring question. Nothing limits them at present: there is no cap on vehicles entering Mallorca in 2026 and no access charge to pay. A bill to introduce both, together with a ceiling on the number of hire cars, began its passage through the Balearic parliament on 9 September 2026, with a traffic study due in October and the government aiming at the summer of 2027, so the position may well be different next year.

Son Bonet, Menorca and the fields worth knowing

Mallorca has one airport that takes jets and one that does not, and the neighbouring islands matter more here than they would on the mainland.

From the terminal to the villa, the port or the mountains

Palma is the best placed airport in the Balearics: nothing on Mallorca is more than about ninety minutes away, and most of the places people actually go are under forty five. The times below are estimates for a car outside the peak. In July and August the Ma-1 and the Ma-19 can add twenty to thirty minutes to any of them, which is the single best argument for the helicopter.

The handler will have the car waiting at the terminal door, and because the general aviation building has its own entrance you avoid the commercial forecourt, which in August is worth more than the ten minutes it saves. For the north coast and the east, a helicopter out of Son Bonet turns the longest transfers into a quarter of an hour, in daylight only.

Popular routes between the UK and Palma, and which way they run empty

Each figure is a guide for one empty leg, with all eight seats of a Citation XLS+ included. The charter price for the same aircraft is a little under two and a half times as much, and both numbers sit in the live table above when a real sector is on the board.

Friday and Saturday afternoons are when the outbound sectors appear and Sunday evenings when the return ones do, which is the opposite of the business corridors into Milan or Geneva. A party flown out on Friday leaves an aircraft with nothing to do until Sunday, and rather than pay two days of Balearic parking the operator takes it home or to the mainland and sells the crossing to whoever wants it.

Online calculator

If you want to see what your route would cost as a standard charter, so you have something to measure an empty leg against, use the calculator below. Fill in the airports, the dates and the number of passengers, add any preference on aircraft type, and we will send a written calculation by email or messenger. Please check your contact details carefully so that we can reply quickly.

The figure the calculator returns is an estimate for planning. The firm quote comes back from our consultants with the cost broken out line by line, and the price agreed there is the price written into the contract.

If you would rather skip the arithmetic, send us the route and the dates instead and a consultant will come back with both numbers, the charter price and any empty leg that fits.

Arriving in Palma from the UK

The Balearics are Spanish, Spain is in the EU and in Schengen, and Britain is in neither, so the border is checked properly in both directions even at a private terminal.

• Passport. It must be less than ten years old on the day you land in Spain and still valid three months beyond the day you intend to leave. Ninety days in any 180 is the ceiling across the whole Schengen area, not per country.
• The Entry/Exit System. A first crossing means a facial image and, for adults and older children, fingerprints. The system became fully operational across every Schengen external border on 10 April 2026, and Spanish airports no longer stamp passports at all; the record is digital.
• ETIAS. Still to come. In July 2026 the launch was put back to 2027; the authorisation will cost 20 euros for travellers aged 18 to 70 and stay valid for three years or until the passport runs out, whichever arrives first.
• Customs coming in. The duty free allowance per adult runs to 200 cigarettes, one litre of spirits, four litres of still wine, sixteen litres of beer and 430 euros of everything else. Cash from ten thousand euros upwards is declarable. Meat and dairy brought from Britain are refused at the border whatever the quantity.
• Bags. The Guardia Civil may open luggage on the way in or out, and the private terminal is not exempt from that.
• Going home. Britain allows 4 litres of spirits, 18 litres of still wine and 42 litres of beer per adult on a private arrival, with a further 270 GBP of goods, but nothing made of meat or milk. Cava bought on the island will count as wine, and cider as beer, once the British categories change on 1 October 2026. Those figures are for Great Britain: the Northern Irish, Jersey and Guernsey allowances differ. Travellers on passports other than British or Irish ones should confirm whether they now need a UK electronic travel authorisation.
• Taxes. Air Passenger Duty leaving Britain, nothing at all leaving Spain, and the Balearic tourism tax on the accommodation.

Empty leg calendar for Palma, month by month

Mallorca has a real season, unlike Milan or Geneva, so its months differ sharply in how many aircraft the island draws and in what that leaves for buyers of empty legs.

May and September are the months to aim for. Both have a full market without the August premium, and September has the additional advantage that the parking ceiling and the slot requirement both end with the month, so a stay that runs on into October meets a relaxed airport and still warm weather.

Three situations, three answers

Flying to Palma with a dog or a cat

An animal leaving Britain for Spain needs three things: a microchip, a rabies vaccination given no less than 21 days before departure, and an animal health certificate signed by an official vet within ten days of the flight. An EU pet passport issued to a British resident before 22 April 2026 may no longer be accepted for entry, so the certificate is the document to rely on. It is good for ten days to enter the EU, then for four months of onward travel inside it and four months of re-entry to Great Britain. There is a second thing to check before booking, which is the breed. Spanish law puts eight of them on a potentially dangerous list, and a dog on that list has to be muzzled anywhere in public and held on a non extendable lead under two metres, one dog to a handler: the pit bull terrier, the Rottweiler, the Staffordshire bull terrier, the American Staffordshire terrier, the Dogo Argentino, the Fila Brasileiro, the Tosa Inu and the Akita Inu. Regions and town halls add licence and insurance requirements of their own.

The journey back is the part that needs arranging first. Two conditions govern it: Great Britain takes pets by private jet only from an operator approved for that particular route, and not every operator is; and a dog needs a tapeworm treatment from a vet no more than 120 hours and no less than 24 hours before landing. Palma has vets who do this work constantly, but in July and August their appointments fill weeks ahead, so book the vet when you book the flight. Mention the dog or the cat when you write to us the first time, and the sectors whose operators refuse animals never reach your shortlist.

Questions about flying private to Palma

Call +44 7857 574938 , message the same number on WhatsApp , or write to flight@empty-leg.co.uk . Tell us the airports, the dates, how many are travelling and how much the dates can move, and we will come back with the sectors that fit and the charter price beside them.