The president of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Pedro Martin, consider that “The Government of Spain has not been up to the task” with the Tenerife South Airport. It refers to the approval yesterday, by the Council of Ministers, of the Airport Regulation Document 2022-2026 (DORA II) without increasing the 3.5 million euros that AENA budgeted to draft the project for the new terminal and without including funds to start the work before 2026.
Martín Domínguez defines as “error” the decision of the central Executive and announces that “we are not going to remain silent and I will not stop demanding the investment that Tenerife South needs.” Since the funding collected in DORA II is insufficient given the needs of this airport, he argues that “it will be necessary to look for it elsewhere.” Along these lines, he assures that “I am already requesting meetings in Madrid to continue working”, with the support of the President of the Canary Islands Government, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the Regional Minister of Transport, Sebastián Franquis.
His reproach to the Executive of Pedro Sánchez is based on the conviction that “the Government of Spain has to help us solve the problem that has been generated by the lack of investment in DORA II.” An endorsement that Pedro Martín understands «fundamental for us». But the situation does not change after yesterday’s ministerial meeting and the Island will have to wait until the 2027-2031 period to start building a terminal for the 21st century. Unless the efforts announced by Martín are successful, who admits that so far he has had “little success.”
“This matter does not end here,” says the president of the island government. “This is not going to stay like that, waiting for the next five years,” he specifies before explaining that he is in contact with representatives of the central executive “to take up this matter. We will have to look for other lines of financing ».
Pedro Martín saw his early morning pessimism confirmed yesterday, when he told Radio Club Tenerife that “we have a difficult time” achieving the objective set from the island of obtaining financing to improve the Tenerife South Airport. «We are going to continue fighting. At the time, the privatization of AENA was a mistake ”.
Question of benefits
Such a measure was approved by the Council of Ministers held on June 13, 2014, chaired by Mariano Rajoy. “49% are from private entrepreneurs, who think about their benefits,” reflects the president of the Cabildo, who emphasizes that, since then, “the works that are done at airports are not paid by the State, but by the airlines to through rates “, which creates” a terrible system because they do not think in the long term, which is what we propose for Tenerife South. ”
At this point, Martín rescues the argument that the airport located in Granadilla de Abona is a set of scraps “with investments without defined criteria.” Against this, he defends “what has never been done” and talks about studying the needs of the airport complex and that “let’s do a project that thinks about the next 30 years.” At this point, he recalls that the project with which the Tenerife Sur Airport was built “was for Seville and it was brought quickly and running after the terrible accident at Los Rodeos” (on March 7, 1977 there was a collision on the ground of two KLM and Pan AM Boeing 747s and killed 583 people). Among the following patches, the president of the Cabildo cites the second terminal, completed in mid-2009 and unused “because they forgot to connect the two terminals, which is what is running now.”
The decision of the Council of Ministers yesterday “shows a tremendous insensitivity on the part of AENA and that the Government of Spain has not risen to the occasion.”
Other ways of financing
The effect of the disregard that AENA and the Government of Spain make to the demand of the employers’ association and of the social and political representation of Tenerife to plan and execute the improvements that the Reina Sofía Airport needs can be remedied. Socialist sources point this out, pointing out that the 3.5 million euros contained in the 2022-2026 Airport Regulation Document are “initial”. Coinciding with the statements of the president of the Island Council, Pedro Martín, they indicate that “there are formulas” to achieve the objective. This depends on the “ambition” of the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands. From the PSOE they point to alternatives such as that such administrations “contribute or advance” the financing that is required – with the guarantee of its return through the DORA III – as well as that the Ministry itself budget for an item destined for the Tenerife South Airport. At the moment, only 3.5 million euros are reflected in the DORA II approved yesterday by the Council of Ministers to draw up the project for the new Tenerife South terminal. From the Island, between 10 and 12 million are claimed, taking into account the scale of the work that is required. The aforementioned document does not contain any amount to start the construction of the new terminal in the last phase of the DORA II application. From Tenerife, they were asking for between 80 and 120 million euros of the 400 that the building will cost, apparently. | JAM
