Tenerife Sur airport will receive the largest investment in its history, estimated at more than 300 million euros, as its comprehensive remodeling, both interior and exterior, enters the DORA III from 2026, announced yesterday Raquel Sánchez, Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, together with the president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, during the inauguration of the extension of the terminal, specifically, the link between the old T1 (1978) and T2 , built in 2009.
The terminal will enter service as of today, after an investment of 64 million euros, although from 2017 to date 162 million have been invested in the Granadilla aerodrome.
A renewal that will guarantee “sustainable, safe and accessible mobility”, explained the minister, who also stressed that Transport will add the 407 million of the litigation with the cuts of the PP in the Rajoy stage, with which the road agreement for Canary Islands goes from 1,200 to 1,607 million until 2027.
The opening ceremony, enlivened by Benito Cabrera’s timple and sweetened with Lucas Gamonal’s cocktail, was also attended by the Government delegate, Anselmo Pestana; the Minister of Transport of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, as well as all the mayors from Arico to Santiago del Teide, plus the president of Fecam, Mari Brito, as well as a broad representation of the tourism business community of the South, those who have pushed by the renovation of the southern airport.
The reform inaugurated yesterday – the link has already started to work and today T2 will do so – was carried out in 50,000 new and usable square meters for carrying out security controls and baggage check-in, eliminating the change of levels to board. With this, the airport will go from being able to accommodate a total of 13 million passengers a year, to 16 million.
Within the construction, not only has the increase in the external passenger transit area been contemplated, but also the pavements of the runway and the aircraft platform have been renewed, and new equipment has been designed for the storage of belongings of the users.
The work is part of the investment planned by Aena for the island’s airports, a plan that has had an investment of 162 million euros in the 2017-2021 period, which provides for the improvement and creation of other terminals throughout the territory Tenerife.
The Minister of Transport pointed out that this action is going to have an “obvious impact on Tenerife and the archipelago as a whole”, and recalled that airports must be at the same level as tourism, because “mobility is a right for citizens, and from the Government we are responsible for guaranteeing it”.
Raquel Sánchez recalled that tourism represents 14.3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Spanish territory, assuming an investment of 119,000 million euros. In the case of the Canary Islands (where tourism has a decisive impact on regional GDP), investment “gains even more relevance”, according to the minister, for which she explained that also, linked to the need to give importance to inter-island connections and with the peninsular territory, the transport discounts for residents of the Canary Islands have been increased.
Compared to 2020, this area has reached an increase of 37%, with 514 million to cover 75% of the cost of tickets both by air and by sea. All these actions have been carried out to “guarantee connectivity and contact between people and territories”, and to relaunch the economy of the islands after the pandemic, according to the minister, who ended her speech with the words of César Manrique: “We have to make the tourist industry coexist with the defense of the territory and its own culture. And that coexistence is possible, but, above all, necessary and obligatory so as not to live with our backs to the future”.
Roads
Raquel Sánchez emphasized, in her first words at the opening ceremony, investment in roads, when she underlined the new addendum to the agreement between the State and the Canary Islands to incorporate 407 million euros of the pending debt with the Islands, in the face of satisfaction of Torres and Franquis. With this measure, the investment is significantly increased, and the legal dispute with the previous Executive of the PP is resolved, as the minister recalled.
In addition, he reported that emergency works have begun on the island of La Palma for the construction of the new route over the volcanic flows that provisionally restores the LP-213 between Puerto Naos and Tazacorte, where a section of road not affected by the volcano between Tazacorte and Los Llanos de Aridane to connect the nodes of the current road network that allow the absorption and distribution of the traffic that now moves to the western fringe of the affected area and thus the functionality of the work emergency is complete.
He said that it is an investment of the Ministry close to 40 million euros and with which the commitment to collaborate to restore the damage caused by the eruption of Cumbre Vieja is fulfilled.
Pedro Martín: “Aena has told us that the necessary money will be invested”
If there was someone filled with satisfaction yesterday, it was the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, who, prior to the inauguration, had transferred the good news to the mayors of the South. “Aena has told us that the money needed will be invested so that Tenerife has the airport it deserves”, he told them.
After the minister’s intervention, she estimated the money to be invested “in more than 300 million”, but made it clear that “we are no longer talking about promises, because in the next Aena council the tender for the project in which Tenerife will have much to see in your follow. We are no longer talking about patches or pieces, but about a powerful investment for a new airport”, also advancing that “after the summer there will also be news at the Tenerife North airport”, and left for later the demanded second runway for the Queen Sofia.
Minister Raquel Sánchez confirmed that the Cabildo will have a lot to do with the design of the project, because “it will be symbolic and representative of the Island.”
