SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Dec. 24 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The so-called ‘canaries without wings’, scattered throughout different parts of Spain, face anger and frustration every year at not being able to spend Christmas in the archipelago due to the high prices of air tickets for people not residing on the islands.
“We start to multiply and it is impossible,” Fernando Cabrera, president of an association that has spent seven years denouncing the abusive prices of airlines for Canarians who do not reside in the archipelago and, therefore, do not benefit, points out to Europa Press of the 75% discount.
He points out that he has lived in Madrid for more than 30 years and has three children, aged 20, 11 and 9 who “have never spent” Christmas in the Canary Islands with their parents’ family because prices always skyrocket at the end of the year.
A family with two adults and two children, if you do not buy well in advance, cannot fly to the Canary Islands for less than 3,000 euros on the key dates of the winter holidays, sometimes not even buying well in advance since the tickets The first five or ten are cheap, then they get more expensive.
He believes, in any case, that only retirees, singles or students can buy tickets at a more affordable price, who know in advance when they can have days off. “I can’t risk buying, I don’t know if I’m going to have a vacation, be sick or have to suspend the trip,” she details.
“Everything is expensive, it’s a joke,” insists Cabrera, who often feels “as if he lived in New Zealand” because it is much cheaper for him to travel from Madrid to New York than to the Canary Islands.
Cabrera confesses that he is tired of the “good intentions” of politicians, especially when the electoral campaigns are approaching, since they try to find solutions, the last one, a pilot project, through the Ministry of Transportation, to establish a Public Service Obligation (OSP) between the Canary Islands and the Peninsula and put a cap on the maximum prices. “I hope it’s a first step,” he says.
“WE FEEL ALONE AND WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF THE RESIDENT CANARY ISLANDS”
He also points out that politicians must “put a red face” because they have to find a solution and “investigate” what happens with the resident discount given that the airlines “keep the money” while the resident “always pays what same” and the ‘canaries without wings’ up to four times more — Vueling has just been sanctioned with returning 459,000 euros for incidents with the discount–.
“That’s the way it is, everyone knows it but no one is crying out loud, we feel alone and without the support of the resident canaries who think we want them to remove it when the discount is fooling everyone,” he says.
Cabrera regrets that connectivity in the Canary Islands “is seen from the perspective of tourism and no one ever considers that the Canary Islands need connectivity and transport for citizens” as he reports that “he has only” gone to live in another autonomous community and has the need to move “You can only go to the Canary Islands by plane.”
“If this is only seen from the tourist prism we have nothing to do,” he adds.
With a Facebook community of more than 5,000 people, he bitterly details that he has entered the “assume phase” that he is an “ex-canary”. “I would like to know where I can sign up to stop feeling the need to go to the Canary Islands,” he reproaches.
