Since budget airline Ryanair announced the cancellation of its direct service linking Ibiza to London Stansted in the winter the island's politicians have been working behind the scenes to replace it.
Nobody is sure why the Ryanair service was pulled so late in the day – many people had already booked flights with them – leading to lots of incorrect speculation as to the reasons. Suffice it to say that Ryanair will no longer fly to Stansted or Bergamo in winter, but they will introduce three new services linking Ibiza to Valencia, Madrid and Barcelona.
The tourist authorities for both Ibiza and the Balearics announced yesterday that they had been negotiating with Monarch Airlines and were 'on the point of recuperating direct flights with London throughout the winter.'
They added that negotiations were 'practically finished' and it looks likely that Monarch would use Gatwick airport, where it is already based in the south of England, for the flights.
Fingers crossed it all turns out!
