The president of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, in her fight for improve mobility of the Island, spoke yesterday of considering the South-Reina Sofia airport as a “sensitive area”, given the queues that in recent days have been seen at the Granadilla de Abona airfield to take a taxi.
The mayor of this municipality, the socialist Jennifer Miranda, disapproves of Dávila’s statements, to which reproaches his “ignorance” of what happens in the south of the Island.
For Miranda, traffic jams on the TF-1 highway are a constant in the daily lives of citizens who live and work in the south of Tenerife. The long lines that form at the entrances and exits of tourist areas affect not only those going to or returning from work, but also tourists who arrive on the island through the Tenerife-Sur International Airport.
This weekend images of long lines of tourists waiting for a taxi to get to their hotel were seen again. Given this, the president of the Tenerife Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, floated the possibility of declaring the airport a sensitive area, thus allowing the entry of taxis from other municipalities.
For the mayor of Granadilla de Abona, Jennifer Miranda, the statements of the president of the Cabildo have generated great concern in the more than 400 families who live in the taxi sector and also demonstrate “a profound lack of knowledge of what is happening in the south of Tenerife in terms of mobility.” The municipal councilor points out that queues of tourists waiting for a taxi occur at “specific moments” as a result of traffic jams on the highway. Therefore, for Miranda the problem is not in the lack of taxis, but rather that they are “trapped in eternal queues that no one seems to want to solve”, taking up to an hour and a half or more to make a trip that, under conditions Normally, it doesn’t take more than 35 minutes.
Granadilla currently has a fleet of 191 self-taxi licenses and another 12 licenses that are in the process of being granted, which allows them to have the capacity to transport more than 800 passengers in a matter of a few minutes.
To this fleet we must also add the licenses from the neighboring municipality of San Miguel de Abona, which work at the Tenerife South airport thanks to Order 1985/085 of the Government of the Canary Islands, and not due to an agreement between Granadilla and San Miguel de Abona, as the president expressed. In total, the fleet capacity is close to 1,000 passengers.
In light of this data, the mayor of Granadilla categorically affirms that the queues that occur at the airport are not a consequence of the lack of taxis, but rather of the historical neglect suffered by Granadilla and the south of Tenerife in terms of mobility and road infrastructure. .
Miranda claims the same sensitivity from the Cabildo that it shows with the queues on the Northern highway, since, as of today, it is unknown what measures it plans to take to solve the traffic jams in the South, he declares.
Rosa Davila
The president of the Cabildo, who was general director of Transport in the Government of the Canary Islands two terms ago, declared yesterday on Cadena Cope that “there is already a declaration of sensitive areas in the Transport Law and, if it is necessary to apply it, the Cabildo will do so. will do,” he said.
“I don’t know what is happening to cause these queues at the airport, because at the time there was an agreement between taxi drivers’ cooperatives in Granadilla and San Miguel to organize and cover the demand. If they cannot organize, we will do it.” , declared the president.
In turn, he pointed out the need to “know the number and attend those flights so that the taxi covers the demand. If this were not the case, from the Cabildo we will declare that area as critical, like any port or airport infrastructure,” he stated. Likewise, he noted that he was going to contact the Granadilla de Abona City Council to find out the reason “for those queues” and “what is happening at the Reina Sofía.”
Uber
The truth is that these queues waiting for a taxi that have been seen at the Reina Sofía in recent days contrast with the fact that today there is more public transport available than ever. Because in addition to the greater presence of buses and the reduced cost of the ticket – there is no free charge for single trips -, it is added that since last June 15, passengers who arrive or want to leave the Reina Sofía have had an Uber fleet, which works in the municipalities of Granadilla de Abona, Arona, Adeje and Guía de Isora.
The company’s premium product, Uber Black, makes luxury vehicles (Audi 8) available to customers. However, the company also offers taxi services with the aim of supporting collaboration between both and thus facilitating coexistence. More than a hundred taxi drivers from the South work with this multinational transport company based in Tenerife.
