Around 250 taxi drivers from across the island have announced they will refuse to pick up passengers anywhere in Sant Josep – including Ibiza Airport, hotels and beaches – from midnight on Friday until midnight on Monday, unless the municipality removes a controversial road sign at the airport.
The drivers claim the sign prevents taxis from other municipalities entering the airport holding area, despite a 2022 Balearic Government decree stating that whenever passengers are waiting at a taxi rank, any licensed taxi on the island can collect them on a first-come, first-served basis, regardless of which municipality issued the licence.
At the heart of the dispute is a simple question.
Why should an empty taxi be forced to drive away while hundreds of passengers queue for a ride?
It makes little sense.
As always in Ibiza, there are plenty of vested interests at play. Every municipality wants to protect its own licences, its own drivers and its own slice of the pie. Meanwhile, visitors are left standing in the summer heat wondering why getting from the airport has become so complicated.
The current system creates unnecessary queues, wastes fuel and sends empty taxis back onto already congested roads.
Surely it’s time to draw a line in the sand.
Ibiza has one airport. Tourists couldn’t care less whether their taxi is licensed in Sant Josep, Sant Antoni, Ibiza Town, Santa Eulària or Sant Joan. They just want to get to their accommodation quickly, safely and without unnecessary delays.
The solution seems obvious.
One island. One airport. One integrated taxi system.
Anything else is simply municipal politics getting in the way of common sense and the losers are the islands only commodity and this is a dangerous game to play.
MAN IN SAN AN by Martin Makepeace 