La entrada The seaplane dream is extinguished in Ibiza: company takes its project to the mainland se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>«There has been no interest from the Balearic administration or the Port Authority, and we are negotiating with other ports on the mainland,» Antoni Jiménez, the Balearic delegate of Isla Air Express, the company that seeks to offer the service of flights between ports, explained to La Voz de Ibiza. In fact, he said that «they are pending tests in other ports in Spain».
Although he did not want to specify which ones, Jiménez himself, in an interview granted in July to Mallorca Diario, had said that they had initiated conversations to fly from Valencia and from Barcelona.
«We do not rule out operating in the Balearic Islands, but given the enthusiasm here, we are looking for other alternatives,» he insisted.
According to Jiménez, the company has requested meetings with the Balearic administration and the Balearic Port Authority (APB). In both cases, he says, they had no response to advance the project or to jointly evaluate the results of the tests carried out.
Jiménez also did not specify to this media which is the main interlocutor that the company has in the Govern. La Voz de Ibiza has consulted the Consellería del Mar y del Ciclo del Agua, which has denied having contacts with the company. The APB has not confirmed contacts with Isla Air Express in recent months.
Regulations
Jiménez had pointed out almost a year ago to La Voz de Ibiza that everything depended on the State, since, for the company to operate, it is required that «the Government approves a mechanism for the management of hydrosurfaces, a legislation that does not yet exist in Spain».
In that line, Isla Air Express had collaborated with the State Agency for Aviation Safety (AESA) in a project that «contemplates acceptable means of compliance of design and operation of hydrosurfaces and incorporates comments resulting from a working group with the sector,» as explained from AESA to La Voz de Ibiza.
This project was submitted in November 2024 to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC), and two months later it was in the study phase. AESA has not yet specified, when asked by La Voz de Ibiza, what is the current status of the project.
Although the regulatory limitation is for the whole of Spain, Jiménez said that, in the absence of a state regulation, «there are other frameworks for action» that are being evaluated with the autonomous administrations of the peninsula.
Tests
The seaplane trial was conducted in November 2024. An aircraft arrived from Palma to the IGY Marina. It was scheduled to make three passenger flights departing from Ibiza, but made only one, and with no passengers on board. The easterly wind, they noted, forced this precaution.
The company considered that the tests were satisfactory, although it admitted that it would have to look for another location from which to operate in Ibiza (which would need the authorization of the APB).
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The easterly wind, the black point of the seaplane test in Ibiza
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Exclusive images of the Isla Air Express seaplane splashdown in Ibiza
The company proposed, as announced last year, to link the different islands in a fast and agile way, without the need for trips to the airport and long boardings.
The original project began in 2018 and demanded an investment of €7 million in equipment and testing. «These tests have demanded an important investment. And the APB has not answered us to review the results,» Jiménez complained.
La entrada The seaplane dream is extinguished in Ibiza: company takes its project to the mainland se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>La entrada AESA moves seaplanes away from Ibiza: no date or commitment for new regulations se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>«The deadlines are complicated, it is difficult for us to foresee them», had predicted in December to La Voz de Ibiza the delegate in the Balearic Islands of Isla Air Express, Antoni Jiménez. And he had clarified that for the company to operate, it requires that «the Government approves a mechanism for the management of hydrosurfaces, a legislation that does not yet exist in Spain». «The ball is on the State’s side,» Jiménez had said, while informing that Isla Air Express technicians were collaborating with the Ministry of Transport in the preparation of this regulation. In fact, the deadlines are difficult to foresee, as admitted to La Voz de Ibiza by the State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) itself when consulted about the regulations pointed out by Isla Air Express. The agency under the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility of the central government has developed «a project that, among other issues, provides acceptable means of compliance of design and operation of hydrosurfaces and incorporates comments resulting from a working group with the sector». Without alluding to the contribution of the technical teams of Isla Air Express, the agency has emphasized that it is «in constant communication with the hydroaviation industry to advance jointly in the development of technical standards for the development of this sector in Spain». As they have specified, the initiative in question is «a complex regulatory project, which not only addresses issues related to hydroaerodromes.» A first draft of the initiative was submitted in November to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC), the body with regulatory competence in civil aviation matters, and is currently in the regulatory study phase. «It is a draft of technical regulations that does not address competence aspects on the authorization of such infrastructures,» AESA has pointed out.
No established deadlines
AESA has clarified that the elaboration of the regulation does not have a specific pre-established term, since the time it demands «is subject to several factors, including the technical difficulty of the text in question». «This procedure includes hearing and public information procedures, and allows the participation of citizens, potentially affected sectors and the autonomous communities, in addition to obtaining the different technical and legal reports necessary for its approval,» they have detailed.
Without time or place
Beyond the regulations in process, Isla Air Express must resolve other issues to operate in the Balearic Islands, at least in Ibiza. As Jiménez has pointed out, tests on the island have not met expectations, since «the operating area is very busy» and «even with reasonably good weather, take-off and landing are very difficult». In any case, the company has not yet resolved anything in relation to what would be the new place from which the seaplanes would depart to connect with the rest of the archipelago, which must be authorized by the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands after a report from the Maritime Captaincy.
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La entrada AESA moves seaplanes away from Ibiza: no date or commitment for new regulations se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>La entrada Investor providing the two Isla Air Express seaplanes, behind the Yak 42 tragedy se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>In fact, Russi Batliwala has developed his career in the contractor company that rented the Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines (UMA) plane that suffered a tragic accident in Turkey in 2003 with 75 people on board, as La Voz de Ibiza has been able to corroborate. The Army ignored repeated complaints from Spanish military personnel who had flown on other planes provided by the contractor to or from Afghanistan because of their low cost. The tragedy also had a wide repercussion due to errors in the identification of the corpses.
RJB Aviation Consulting GMBH
As reported by the specialized magazine Avion Revue, the German company RJB Aviation Consulting GMBH has contributed almost 8 million euros for the development of the Isla Air Express project. It is a company founded by Russi Batliwala, who has more than 37 years of experience in Chapman Freeborn, a leading British charter company in his country and in Europe. In 1990, Batliwala became CEO of the company in Germany, in 2000 he took over as head of the company’s worldwide cargo service, and in 2009 he became group managing director. «Since then, Russi has been instrumental in developing the company’s global expansion strategy, establishing many key global charter operations and subsidiary businesses in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America,» notes the Chapman Freeborn website. «I have spent my life working with aircraft and am a big fan of seaplanes,» Batliwala has told La Voz de Ibiza via email. He also confirmed that RJB Aviation Consulting Gmbh is his company, and said that the link between this company and Isla Air Express is «only as an investor and owner of the aircraft». This version agrees with what Antoni Jiménez, representative in the Balearic Islands of Isla Air Express, has explained to La Voz de Ibiza, although without naming names. «The company is made up of a company that has the planes, another one that has the authorizations and a third one that commercializes, which is Isla Air Express». According to Jiménez, this is the model of 90% of the airlines.
The hitherto hidden story of the leading investor
Until the publication in the specialized press, the identity of the investor had been kept hidden by Isla Air Express. La Voz de Ibiza had requested on several occasions the identity of the investors without success. «The main partner does not want public promotion, not because he has something to hide, but because he does not want that projection. He has other businesses in the Balearic Islands and he thinks this investment is great. His link with the operation of the company is tangential,» said Jimenez, after repeated inquiries from La Voz de Ibiza to confirm the identity of the major capitalist of the company. In fact, Batliwala has a company in Mallorca, Pas D’en Quint Mallorca SL, whose corporate purpose is «the purchase and sale, promotion, exploitation, administration and leasing of all types of properties, rural and urban, tourist and commercial».
The Yak 42 trial
Together with the Ukrainian company, Chapman Freeborn was denounced by relatives of the victims, after numerous warnings about the poor condition of the aircraft were ignored by the Ministry of Defense, unlike the Norwegian government, which after a first complaint cancelled the contracts with the company. During the second civil trial of the case, Batliwala was summoned to testify at the Zaragoza Court, but did not show up. In 2010, Chapman Freeborn was ordered by the Zaragoza Court of Appeals to compensate the 59 plaintiff family members with 6.2 million euros. The process escalated to the Supreme Court, which ratified the sentence, and continued in Germany, where the compensation was confirmed. Batilwala, who is now a member of Chapman Freeborn’s board of directors, became CEO and legal representative of the company as the lawsuits progressed.
Minority partner, also with a controversial background
Batliwala was not present at the Isla Air Express tests carried out in the Balearic Islands. The company’s CEO, Sergio Núñez-Cacho Solans, and Klaus Dieter Martin, minority partner, were present. Dieter Martin, a consultant to Isla Air Express, has worked as the CEO of European Coastal Airlines, the Croatian company that promised to link the Balkan coast with Italy but came to an abrupt end. The company operated between 2014 and 2016, connecting Croatian ports and also operating international routes, which departed from Split (its main hub in Croatia) and the Italian destinations of Ancona and Pescara. Despite the fact that the company had good projections, in August 2016, after several complaints from passengers, the Croatian portal Index published an investigation in which it spoke of «dangerous omissions» in the maintenance of seaplanes. Soon, the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency withdrew their permission to operate for safety reasons. This resulted in the suspension of operations and the loss of 130 jobs. Dieter Martin not only brings his know-how to Isla Air Express, but is also one of the owners of Mediterranean Coastal Airlines. This company has an Air Operator’s Certificate, something that the company that intends to link the Spanish islands does not have.
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La entrada Investor providing the two Isla Air Express seaplanes, behind the Yak 42 tragedy se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>La entrada The seaplane company rules out operating in the authorized test area in Ibiza se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>«The deadlines are complicated, it is difficult for us to foresee them. Before we continue with applications to the APB to operate, we need the Government to approve a mechanism for the management of hydrosurfaces, a legislation that does not yet exist in Spain», he said. Antoni Jiménezthe company’s delegate in the Balearic Islands, to La Voz de Ibiza. He has clarified that, for this reason, permits can only be requested to operate private traffic, «but for commercial traffic a ministerial order must be published to regulate the sector». In that line, Jiménez has pointed out that from the company they collaborate with the Ministry of Transport to develop the corresponding protocols. «The ball is on the State’s side,» he defined. And he added: «We expected this legislation to be in place much earlier. But we understand that it takes time, since governments and ministries have changed in the meantime. Even so, we believe that the issue is advanced at the national level. But we have had to modify the projections so many times that we no longer know, it does not depend on us». For all these reasons, Jiménez has chosen to be cautious, but does not lose hope that commercial flights will be a reality next year: «It is very difficult to make predictions when it comes to public administration. But we understand that, if everyone puts in their work, we could be operating within the year 2025».
A new site to operate in Ibiza
On November 6, an Isla Air Express hydroship carried out tests in Ibiza. It arrived from Palma to the port of Ibiza, more precisely to the Marina IGY area , where it installed a provisional floating dock and gangway. On that day, the company had planned three tests. However, it only carried out one of the three planned tests, and it did so without passengers. The company argued that this was a precautionary measure due to the easterly wind, even though the conditions in Ibiza that day were not exceptionally bad, quite the contrary. At that time, the company had pointed out that the conditions were not ideal for take-off and landing. Now, it admits that it will not be feasible to operate from there. «The tests in Palma went very well, although in Ibiza there is a problem. The area of operation is very busy. Even with reasonably good weather, it makes takeoff and splashdown very difficult. It is possible, but they are not the most suitable or comfortable conditions,» said Jiménez. The Isla Air Express spokesman has been emphatic on this point: «We will have to rethink to find another space in Ibiza where we do not hinder the operations of the boats and provide all the security guarantees. We do not know where yet. What we do know is that it’s not worth operating from a place where we won’t be able to fly half the year. Beyond the case of Ibiza, Jiménez has considered that «the test flights have been fundamental». He added: «Our technical teams are working on a full report on the tests we carried out in November. We will send it to the authorities shortly». This technical report will be delivered to different authorities: from the State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA), to Palma Airport and the Ministry of Transport, through the Balearic Port Authority (APB). «We hope to have interlocutors to discuss the issue and talk about it,» said Jiménez.
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La entrada The seaplane company rules out operating in the authorized test area in Ibiza se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>La entrada The easterly wind, the black point of the seaplane test in Ibiza se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>Another place for seaplanes
On Wednesday the hydrofoil arrived in Ibiza from Palma with passengers. It was scheduled to make three flights, also with passengers, but only one was made, and without people on board. «In any case, that flight has already given us a lot of information,» added Jiménez. And he clarified: «We will try to negotiate some other place where the conditions are better to be able to make the landings and take-offs». Wednesday’s weather conditions in Ibiza were not exceptional. In that framework, Jiménez has remarked that, although the wind has been a complication, it does not imply the inability to operate. «The seaplane left not at full capacity, but it left loaded, also with people. In between we made another splashdown and another takeoff. In other words, the area is operational. But it is not the ideal area. It is not the best area to provide a good service to the people«. In contrast, he pointed out that «in Palma, the two take-off and landing sites are impeccable. Therefore, we would have to try to find another area in Ibiza, not within the port, where we can do the operations». In any case, Jiménez has remarked: »
It has been demonstrated that we can operate. We have made entries and exits crossing with ferries and without closing the normal flow of traffic. «.
The plan to connect all the islands
Isla Air Express was established in 2018. Since then it has invested more than €7 million in studies, acquisitions and authorizations, and managed permits. This week it carried out its first trials. The inaugural one was on Tuesday in Palma, at the Real Club Nautico. It was a thirty-minute flight. For these tests the company had a provisional permit from the Balearic Port Authority (APB). Now, it hopes to get the authorization to start operating.
La entrada The easterly wind, the black point of the seaplane test in Ibiza se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>La entrada Exclusive images of the Isla Air Express seaplane splashdown in Ibiza se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
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However, this will not be the place of operation of the initiative in case it receives the final approval of the Balearic Islands Port Authority (APB), which has enabled these tests that were also carried out yesterday in Palma. The Balearic company behind the project has invested more than seven million euros in the last six years in studies, acquisitions and authorizations necessary to make this innovative connection a reality.
With this initial kick-off and the positive outcome of these tests, it hopes to receive the final authorization from the APB to establish a stable operation between Ibiza and Palma.
La entrada Exclusive images of the Isla Air Express seaplane splashdown in Ibiza se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>La entrada Seaplane connection between Ibiza and Palma to be tested on November 5 and 6 se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>On November 6th it will be the turn of Ibiza, where the presentation will be held at the dock of the Marina IGY at 14:00 hours. At 15:00 hours the test flight will take place, replicating the format of the previous day, flying over the coast of Ibiza and landing in the port after 30 minutes of flight.
A strategic service led by Isla Air Express
Isla Air Express, the Balearic company behind the project, has invested more than seven million euros in studies, acquisitions and the necessary authorizations to make this innovative connection a reality. The company has spent six years managing the necessary permits to establish seaplane flights between the islands and the mainland, seeking to offer new transportation alternatives that facilitate the transfer of residents and tourists. The project will not only improve mobility in the Balearic Islands, but also seeks to position the islands as a benchmark for modern transport in the Mediterranean. The service promises to shorten distances and enhance the tourist offer, consolidating Ibiza and Palma as pioneering destinations in mobility solutions.
Impact on mobility and tourism
The launch of this service responds to the growing need to improve connections between the islands, providing a more agile and efficient option to traditional maritime transport. In addition, the possibility of landing directly at the ports adds a differential attraction for tourism, reinforcing the mobility offer in both destinations. With these tests, Ibiza and Palma are closer to consolidating a unique air route in the Mediterranean. If the tests meet expectations, commercial flights could be operational shortly, opening new doors to tourism and island connectivity.
La entrada Seaplane connection between Ibiza and Palma to be tested on November 5 and 6 se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
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