In an extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee, the Chamber of Commerce analyzed the seriousness of the matter. The entity establishes that the airport of the South has a “particular relevance” in the whole of the national network. «It is a strategic infrastructure for Tenerife and the State and having a second-rate airport represents a significant loss of competitiveness with the corresponding decline in the economy. What for AENA is to gain time, for the Canary Islands it is a drag on economic development, ”says the president of the Chamber. “This issue has been causing us great concern for a long time,” he stated in a statement.
Santiago Sesé remembers that more than 11 million passengers used the facilities per year before the year 2020, most of them international tourists whose last image of the Island was “an obsolete and inappropriate terminal for a destination of this magnitude.” In his opinion, “putting a solution to this deficiency, which has been going on for too long, is urgent in order not to lose competitiveness, when it is more necessary than ever to emphasize quality, which also requires appropriate infrastructures.”
Logical discomfort
The cameral entity does not understand that AENA does not include the new Tenerife South terminal in its planning “with the conditions of functionality and excellence that it needs.” He shares the “logical unease” because such a fact “reveals, once again, a fhigh sensitivity with which it is not possible to meet the demands and needs of the Island and that is difficult to imagine in the State’s dealings with other territories ”.
The Chamber of Commerce of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which represents and defends the interests of companies in the province, asks AENA to include in DORA II “the economic item that the airport needs” from the South. The reconsideration of its investment plan for the next five years is supported by the Chamber in the figures of the public business entity.
In this regard, he points out that “according to AENA data, the Tenerife South Airport is one of the most profitable in Spain”, an argument that, in the opinion of the chamber entity, “should be enough for the national airport entity to prioritize investment” in the Granadilla de Abona aerodrome. “An airport from 1978 that has not opted for the investments it needs, something that has happened in other airports in the national network,” he clarifies. “Being one of the few airports that is profitable, betting on an infrastructure that already generates good results will result in more benefits, something that in the current situation is especially relevant and necessary ”, analyzes the president.
There is no real commitment
Sesé Alonso highlights that “this is a historical claim” that has the “agreement and support” of the island’s social, economic and political agents. He justifies that the objective of such demand is to have an airport that is up to par of the quality and excellence that Tenerife wants to offer. «AENA is not showing a real commitment, since this neglect translates into insufficient planning and commitment, continually patching the facilities instead of planning a comprehensive rehabilitation of this infrastructure which, on the other hand, is also essential for the State, “the president added.
It highlights the role of Canary Islands placing it among the regions that most contribute to spreading the Spain brand “due to the role played by the millions of tourists who come to the Archipelago.” Something that the Government of Spain and AENA put at risk “with their lack of response to a demand as simple as a modern airport and at the height of the Island and its main economic sector.”
