«Aena is indebted to Tenerife». Javier Cabrera, president of the Circle of Entrepreneurs and Professionals of the South of Tenerife (CEST), urges the company that manages Spanish airports to completely reform the Reina Sofía, “one of the most profitable in Spain”. It is a demand that has been demanded for years not only by businessmen, but also by city councils, especially those that have more weight in the tourism sector. Cabrera indicated it yesterday during a meeting with the candidates of New Canary Islands-Canarian Block (NC-BC).
This demand is for Javier Cabrera Cabrera “one of the main businessmen in the South of Tenerife”, he highlighted after the meeting with the NC-BC candidates for Congress for the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Ana Orán and Isabel Torres, as well as as with the candidate for the Senate for Tenerife of this formation, Pedro Jonay Díaz, and the Secretary of Territorial Implantation, Valentín Correa.
«We asked for the adaptation of the Tenerife South airport to the real requirements of the tourism industry», stressed the president of the CEST, to add: «The airport has to be functional, comfortable and be prepared to receive and correctly serve a sector that is the engine of our economy, the largest generator of employmentthe one that supports social services, health and education ».
Reform preparations
Spanish Airports and Air Navigation (Aena) is already working on the complete reform of Tenerife Sur but according to the businessmen and main political representatives, this action is long overdue due to the urgent need to improve an infrastructure that has become obsolete due to the constant arrival of tourists to its facilities.
The last step taken by the management company on the Reina Sofía was known last Monday. Of the five proposals submitted to design the comprehensive remodeling project of the Tenerife Sur airport, which will involve an investment of more than €300 million, only two have passed the last technical evaluation. This was reported by Aena, which qualified that its Board of Directors plans to approve the award of technical assistance and drafting of the project this month. The company detailed in the statement that the UTE (Temporary Business Union) Prointec/Efebearquitectura and WSP Spain-Apia have passed the aforementioned evaluation, with proposals of more than 3.9 and 4.1 million euros, respectively.
Among the improvements planned in this rehabilitation of the entire Reina Sofía include the ordering and execution of new car parks and accesses; the review of urbanization and landscaping; the adequacy of the baggage reclaim hall; the expansion of the billing and boarding areas, or the incorporation of more commercial services.
“A huge effort”
In the aforementioned note sent to the media on Monday, Aena recalls that “it is carrying out a enormous investment effort to convert the Tenerife South Airport into a benchmark among its peers at an international leveloffering modern infrastructures, in keeping with the territory they serve and focused on quality, innovation and sustainability”.
The Tenerife Sur airport, which with 6,071,494 passengers, is the second busiest in the Canary Islands, according to data for the first half of the year provided yesterday by Aena. In addition, the figures do not stop growing: the Reina Sofía records an increase of 19.5% in passengers over 2022.
