The Aeródromo de Son Bonet was Mallorca’s original civil airfield. Mallorca’s first ever airplane landed here in 1916. Son Bonet was inaugurated in 1920 as Mallorca’s official airport under the name of Aeródromo de Mallorca. The first commercial flight was carried out in 1927 by the Iberia LAE airline; a flying school was established here in 1935. Mallorca’s first tourists landed here, just outside of Palma, near Es Pont d’Inca. During the Spanish Civil War, Son Bonet was adapted for both civilian and military purposes. The Italian air force briefly used the airport as one of its bases to launch bomber raids on Barcelona and Valencia. During 1946, Son Bonet was equipped as a customs airport and opened to domestic and international traffic.
The small airport could not accommodate the larger aircraft that was soon common nor could the runway be extended. Consequently, these services were transferred to Son Sant Joan airport in 1959. Nowadays, Son Bonet is purely used for private air traffic as well as for leisure aviation with approximately 10,000 flight operations per year.
The airoplane shown in my photo is a Douglas DC-3, built in 1936, probably one of the world’s best known aircraft. This particular plane flew in and out of Son Bonet during the Fifties and Sixties.
The photo was taken in Son Bonet, Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: October 27th, 2009. The time was 16:45:07.
