The president of the self-employed, Biel Moragues, says that “the situation is less illegal than before”.
Today marks the end of the week’s deadline given by the Mallorca Taxi Self-Employed Association to the Association of Passenger Transport Operators of the Balearic Islands (ATIVB) to avoid confrontations between taxi drivers and minibus drivers in the arrivals area of Son Sant Joan. The balance, according to both associations, “has been positive, because we have found a way to understand each other”. Biel Moragues, president of the Palma airport taxi employers’ association PIMEM, said on Friday: “The balance has been and is very positive, because everyone has respected each other. If before there were five illegalities, now there is only one left and that is the one referring to direct hiring at the airport”.
Moragues and the president of the ATVIB, Juan Gorreta, agree in pointing out that it is now up to the Ministry of Mobility to act “because we have achieved a level of behaviour that did not exist before and we want this to continue in this way throughout the summer season”. Moragues added that thanks to the agreement reached “there have been no public order problems, there is freedom of choice for tourists to choose the type of transport they want, the recruitment is done by word of mouth and there is no longer any sense of blockage at the entrances to the taxi rank”.
Clashes at the airport
The tourist sector sees the fights at Son Sant Joan as “shameful”.
Both associations are aware that some guidelines for behaviour were agreed, but never to take for granted a manifest illegality that regulates current regional regulations. “We want to continue with the same tone of work and not return to the one that prevailed a week ago, which caused clashes between taxi drivers and minibus drivers,” said Moragues.
At the same time, the ATVIB employers’ association pointed out that the meeting held this week with the Balearic Transport Business Federation “served to know the opinion of the CAEB taxi drivers, as well as the VTC, but the general feeling is that the key has been found to avoid problems at the airport”.
Also, both the self-employed taxi and minibus drivers are not in favour of setting up an information point or hiring point “because it has to be put out to tender and the result cannot be as expected, which is why we will continue to negotiate”, they explained.