SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE 8 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Ashotel has once again raised concerns this Friday regarding the “lengthy” waits encountered at passport control at Tenerife South airport, significantly impacting British tourists and residents arriving from non-EU countries, as well as those seeking taxis.
The employers’ association stresses that this predicament was previously reported a year ago and, following discussions with officials from Aena and the Las Américas National Police Station, “the evidence indicates that no resolution has been achieved to a scenario that is not fitting for a top-tier tourist destination.”
Ashotel cautioned about the emergence of this “chaos” when the United Kingdom departed from the European Union, highlighting the repercussions this could have on border control services at the Tenerife airport since January 2021, and “three years later, the situation remains unchanged.”
As a specific instance, it notes that on Thursday, several tourism business delegations arriving at Tenerife South from London airports post-World Travel Market observed the “inactivity” of the relevant authorities.
Out of four double booths available for passport control, with a capacity for eight agents, only two were operational, resulting in “a queue exceeding an hour due to the influx of flights from the United Kingdom,” it states.
“Yet the situation is even graver,” the hoteliers express in a statement, “given that over 30 biometric passport self-service machines situated around terminals A and B are not functional.”
As communicated by some Aena operators to Ashotel representatives, additional machines are stored, yet there is uncertainty regarding when they will be installed or when the current ones will become operational.
In light of this predicament, Ashotel has penned a letter to the Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, requesting an “urgent” meeting involving the heads of the National Police Corps as well.
TAXI STAND QUEUES ALSO
Associated with the passport control queue is another queue, occasionally stretching to an hour, to access taxis at the airport.
The employers’ association asserts that after numerous attempts, meetings, and proposals to the Cabildo of Tenerife since 2013 aimed at designating the island’s ports and airports as strategic island infrastructure and establishing a shared service area among them, it does not comprehend why at the airports, taxi licences from the municipalities housing them have a “preferential right.”
In this regard, the hotel employers contend that for Tenerife South, it is illogical that only taxis from Granadilla de Abona have authority over a facility of island significance while vehicles licensed from other municipalities, that travel to this airport to drop off passengers, must depart empty, as hundreds await transportation to their accommodations or residences.
Ashotel emphasises that the designation of a sensitive area for the primary air and sea transport infrastructures on the island should be “genuinely operational,” which would allow any taxi licences wishing to operate there, devoid of any restrictions, doing so without reserving the right for vehicles from a particular municipality, “as though it is a privilege, in light of the fact that these infrastructures are funded by taxes from all Spaniards, not merely those residing in those municipalities.”
The employers deem this situation “unacceptable,” particularly considering that this infrastructure is of premier importance on the island and holds national significance.
Indeed, this airport ranks as the seventh busiest in the entire Aena network with 12.3 million passengers and 83,600 operations recorded in 2023, according to data from the public entity itself.
