Tenerife Sur airport terminal will grow 50% before March

The Tenerife South airport will open two new buildings in the first quarter of next year that will increase its current surface by more than 50% and will allow the operational area of check-in and boarding to be doubled. This is the space known until now as T-2, already completed, which will incorporate 32 counters and six boarding gates (five of which will start operating this month), and the building that will connect the current terminal, built in 1978, with T-2, which will add 10 security controls (each with arch and double machine) and four more accesses for passenger boarding.

This was reported to DIARIO DE AVISOS by Mario Otero, director of AENA in the Canary Islands, and Luis López Chapí, director of Tenerife Sur, during a visit by this newspaper to facilities that for the first time see the light in a media outlet and that suppose “The largest expansion and modernization in the history of the airport,” according to both executives. In less than six months, the area of Tenerife South will increase from the current 97,452 square meters to 151,394.

The expansion works, included in the Airport Regulation Document (DORA) 2017-2021, which contemplates an investment program for the South of 152 million euros, will allow increasing the airport’s capacity from the current 13 million passengers (in 2019 , before the pandemic, the facilities received 11.2 million) to 16 million travelers annually, which, in the opinion of AENA, guarantees the attention of the present demand and that which is expected in the near future.

The new building that will integrate the two terminals will facilitate the departure process, located on a single level, will centralize security controls, will incorporate four boarding gates and two new telescopic walkways, and will improve the commercial offer, which will reinforce quality and image perceived by the passenger, ensures AENA.

Regarding the space known as T-2, which required an investment of 6.1 million euros, it will be used to expand the surface for shipments. It will consist of six doors and a centralized control of exit passports, which will allow greater efficiency and comfort in the process for the passenger. The available area will increase the boarding area by more than 5,000 square meters, to which must be added another 5,000 in the check-in area with the entry into service of 32 counters, in addition to the current 87 that the airport has. . To these actions, recalls the state airport entity, it is necessary to add the general adaptation of the aircraft parking apron and the regeneration of the pavement of the runway, already completed.

Four processes

“Once these actions are put into service, in the first quarter of 2022, four of the main airport processes will be notably improved: billing, security control, boarding and disembarking,” said the director of AENA in the Canary Islands, who recalled that “the works at airports are carried out for three fundamental reasons: safety, capacity and quality ”.

Regarding the controversy arising from the criticism from the Cabildo and business sectors that require AENA greater economic items in its investment program and end with a “fully amortized” terminal, Mario Otero indicated that the DORA II (2022-2026) It includes the drafting of the project for the future terminal area, in whose design AENA has worked together with the Cabildo “to agree on the airport that Tenerife needs in the coming years.” In addition, he advanced that “we want a competition model that ensures the participation of the best engineering and architectural firms in Spain and abroad.”

For the head of AENA in the Archipelago, the “only discrepancy is in when.” “Why not now? Because the pandemic has caused air traffic figures to fall and its recovery is expected, according to international organizations, for the final stretch of the period that includes DORA II. And as we depend on our own income, this situation has forced us to rethink all investments ”. Otero underlined AENA’s “firm commitment” to undertake the plan for Tenerife South. “If not, we would not do the project,” he added.

For his part, the airport director assured that “we are prepared for the growth that may come at levels of air traffic of two years ago, before the pandemic, or even higher”, and recalled that 92% of the passengers at the aerodrome Southerners are tourists, which places it at the forefront of the European airports with the highest percentage in the tourism and leisure segment.

Regarding short-term forecasts, Luis López Chapí predicts a progressive recovery. “The image of the airport is completely different from a year ago, when we had only one flight per day. Today they do not fall below 100 daily operations (between takeoffs and landings) and on Saturdays they go up to 200. In the first quarter of this year we had 10% compared to the first quarter of 2019; in the second, between April and June, we went up to 30%, and in July and August we reached 50% ”.

The airport director, who believes that the COVID vaccine has been decisive for the reactivation of traffic, considers that the progression will continue coinciding with the high tourist season: “The forecasts are favorable, according to what airlines and forums tell us. specialized ”.

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