The Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, announced this Wednesday that the Government is collaborating with AENA and the airlines to prevent the concentration of flights at the Tenerife South airport and to ensure there are no crowds at passport control.
Grande-Marlaska provided this update during the Plenary Session of the Congress of Deputies in response to a query from Canarian Coalition deputy Cristina Valido, who sought to understand what measures the Interior would implement to “eliminate endless queues” at passport control upon arrival at Tenerife South airport.
Valido elaborated that each year, during the peak season for British tourists, the queues at passport control “even spill into the operations area” of the airport, an issue that is “regrettable and extremely dangerous” for the islands.
The CC deputy pointed out that Tenerife South only has eight checkpoints staffed by a mere two police officers, attributing this to an infrastructural issue that falls under the responsibility of the central Administration, including the issuance of flight operation permits.
He emphasised that the airport is “mainly” managed by AENA, which is 51% owned by the Spanish Government, and has urged the Interior Minister to confer with the Transport Minister, Óscar Puente, to direct AENA to provide updates on “the project for the renovation of Tenerife South airport“. “The challenges at Tenerife South are the responsibility of the Spanish Government, and they must be addressed quickly,” concluded the Canarian parliamentarian.
Queues at bus and taxi stands with tourists waiting for transport. / ED
Delays
In his remarks, the Interior Minister indicated that this is a “truly intricate” situation, in which various factors are at play, in addition to the fact that the UK has exited the EU and there is now a more rigorous border control, focusing not just on documentation but also security.
Marlaska highlighted that numerous airlines are congesting flight schedules, alongside the reality of delays and changes, explaining that his department, in addition to having increased the number of police personnel by 18% servicing Tenerife South airport, is “working and collaborating” with AENA and the operators to rectify this predicament.
Nonetheless, the Interior Minister acknowledged that these “variations in the duration of visitors’ stays” are “quite specific” and occur “on particular days”, such as previous holiday long weekends, during which an average of nearly 30,000 individuals arrived and departed from Tenerife South airport.
This inquiry in Congress surfaced two weeks after the Parliament of the Canary Islands passed a non-legal proposal urging the regional Government to prompt the central government to ensure adequate police forces are available at the island’s airports to manage the passport control demand generated by visitor numbers.
Within that non-law proposal presented by the Nationalist group (CC), which included amendments from PP and Vox, and was adopted unanimously, there was also a call to activate the biometric recognition passport self-check machines that are currently inactive, though these were not mentioned in today’s Congress session.
