Mallorca braces for German Easter influx as flights boom

The Spanish island of Mallorca was on Tuesday bracing for an Easter influx of sun-starved German tourists, as demand for Mediterranean holidays soared despite virus curbs and warnings from Berlin against foreign travel. Germany's Robert Koch Institute disease control agency removed the Balearic islands from its list of risk areas last weekend, prompting numerous airlines to schedule extra Easter flights to Mallorca -- a popular holiday destination among Germans sometimes jokingly called the country's "17th state". "The desire to spend the Easter holidays on the Mediterranean is significantly bigger than expected," said German tourism giant TUI Tuesday. The package holiday provider said that it had received more bookings for Mallorca in recent days than in the same period in 2019, and would be doubling the number of its flights plying the route to the island to 300. Lufthansa also said Friday it would double flights to Spain during Easter to meet a surge in demand, with three times more connecting Frankfurt and Palma, the capital of Mallorca. Similar announcements have followed in recent days, with Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings announcing 300 extra flights from Germany to the Balearics and Ryanair adding an additional 200 flights between Germany and Spain over Easter.<br/>