The battle for the future of Ibiza Airport is no longer just a discussion about plans. It has a budget, contracts, and a timeline. While thousands of people were protesting in Vila against the expansion, Aena was moving forward with the administrative process for a project that envisions a radical transformation of the airport’s infrastructure and will involve hundreds of millions of euros over the next few years.
The airport operator has put out to tender the contract for technical assistance, supervision, control, and management of operations for Ibiza Airport, with an estimated value of 19.6 million euros and a duration of five years. The tender documents, drafted in October 2025, were published in June 2026 and set October 1 as the deadline for submitting bids.
This measure is especially significant because it comes at a time when Ibiza’s institutions are trying to form a political front against any action that would increase the airport’s operational capacity. The President of the Council, Vicent Marí, has announced that he will convene the Ibiza deputies and senators, regardless of their party affiliation, to seek a common position to present to Aena and the central government.
The island’s plenary session has also approved a motion calling for airport investments to be used to improve service, safety, and infrastructure, but not to increase capacity or fuel further tourist pressure. The Ibiza PSOE has also expressed its opposition to any expansion that involves increasing the number of passengers and fostering additional tourist growth.
Opponents of the project have also taken to the streets. According to figures from the Government Delegation and the National Police, the demonstration held last week in Vila brought together about 5,000 people, while the organizers estimate the turnout at between 5,000 and 10,000 attendees and believe that around 15,000 people had gathered by the end, during the reading of the manifesto in Reina Sofía Park.
Organized by the Ibiza Youth Association, the Ibiza Studies Institute, Friends of the Earth, GEN-GOB, Salvem sa Badia, and various neighborhood associations, the protest called for the Aena expansion project not to be carried out, due to the risk it would pose from an increase in the number of tourists and a rise in environmental and land-use pressure on the island. The organizers also called for greater public participation in a decision they consider strategic for the future of Ibiza.
An investment of 229.7 million
The dispute comes at a particularly significant moment for Aena. The new Airport Regulatory Document (DORA III), approved by the Government for the 2027–2031 period, provides for a €229.7 million investment at Ibiza Airport.
The project designed by Aena includes a complete renovation of the terminal, a new pier for passengers traveling to non-Schengen destinations, a reorganization of the boarding areas, new areas for passengers and staff, and work on the annex and the aerodrome. The number of boarding gates would increase from 17 to 32, and eight new jet bridges would be added.
Aena’s own documentation describes a project covering about 25,000 square meters, with at least three floors, as well as work on access roads, parking lots, and the renovation of about 30,000 square meters of the aircraft parking apron. The project report also links the work to projected traffic growth and states that the investments will allow the infrastructure to be adapted to the airport’s future demand.
There is, however, one particularly significant point in the debate: Aena maintains that the reform will not increase the airport’s capacity, as it does not provide for increasing the number of operations that can be carried out per hour. The company presents the project as a modernization aimed at improving traffic flow management, safety, and the passenger experience. It is precisely here that the political debate begins.
The question is not just how much is invested, but in what it is invested.
For the Ibiza Council, there is a substantial difference between modernizing and expanding. The institution recognizes the need to invest in essential infrastructure for residents, workers, and visitors, but rejects the idea that this investment should become a means to accommodate additional growth in the number of tourists.
The problem goes beyond the airport itself. For years, Ibiza has been facing the physical limits of an economic model based on a massive influx of visitors during the high season. Water, transportation, housing, waste, and the pressure on the island are all part of the same debate.
The Council itself has identified water supply and sanitation as priorities that should be addressed before undertaking a transformation of this scale. The institution has highlighted recurring problems at the airport facilities, including issues related to restrooms and sanitation, and is calling for the airport’s water supply to be secured.
Their demands even include a dedicated desalination plant to reduce pressure on the aquifers and ensure the facility’s water self-sufficiency. The debate, therefore, is no longer strictly about the airport. The fundamental question is what kind of growth Ibiza is willing to accept and what infrastructure it needs to support it.
A deadlock between Aena and the region
Aena, for its part, sees the project as part of its investment program and in accordance with the new European regulatory requirements. The company believes the airport must be transformed to adapt to new operational requirements and improve the operating conditions of this strategic infrastructure for the island. The paradox is that both parties agree on one premise: the airport needs investment. What divides them is the ultimate goal of this investment.
From Aena’s perspective, the goal is to improve efficiency, safety, quality, and the capacity to manage passenger flows within an infrastructure that must adapt to new demands. From a local perspective, the fear is that a larger, more efficient infrastructure will end up facilitating, directly or indirectly, an increase in tourist pressure.
Public mobilization has turned this technical disagreement into a political conflict. And Vicent Marí’s announcement that he intends to seek a united front in Madrid suggests that Ibiza wants to take the debate from the island level to Congress and the Senate.
The airport as a barometer of the tourism model
The case of Ibiza exemplifies one of the main challenges faced by established tourist destinations: how to invest in improving the competitiveness of the infrastructure without that investment being interpreted as an invitation to expand in terms of volume.
The debate takes on even greater importance in the context of DORA III and Aena’s major investment cycle for the 2027–2031 period. The airport operator expects around €10 billion in regulated investment in its network during this period, plus an additional €3 billion in investment.
In Ibiza, however, the question doesn’t seem to be how much money will be received, but rather what economic and regional benefits that money should generate. The island wants a safer, more modern, and more efficient airport. Aena wants to transform an infrastructure that it considers in need of a complete overhaul. Mobilized citizens and the island’s institutions fear that this transformation will end up reinforcing a tourism model that they already consider to have limited growth potential.
That’s why the battle that now begins will not be just about one terminal, eight boarding bridges, or 229.7 million euros. It will be a much more strategic question for Ibiza: whether the island’s future lies in welcoming more visitors or in managing those who already arrive more effectively. And while this debate continues in offices and on the streets, something has already been set in motion: Aena’s contractual machinery.
