The Airport Regulation Document (DORA) 2022-2026 It will be approved on the 28th by the Council of Ministers and only contemplates 3.5 million to draw up the project for the new terminal. “Insufficient” to meet “this social demand”, which requires a provision of no less than 10 million euros to draft the project “and no less than 100 million to start the work.” For this reason, they call on the political and economic unit in order to speed up the efforts, although they miss the urgent call of the Canary Islands Airport Committee «to issue a recommendation to AENA for him to do this work now, because this is the moment when we need it to be done.
CEOE. Pedro Afonso, general secretary of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (CEOE), pronounces in such terms and tasks the authorities: “The Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo of Tenerife must assume their institutional representation and demand that AENA that it fulfills the commitment it has with Tenerife to carry out the comprehensive rehabilitation of the South airport terminal. It has to be before the DORA is approved. ‘ The business association demands that the regional and island executives “make this social demand their own and reinforce and redouble their demand before AENA to consolidate this project.”
The state trading company AENA is accused, in global terms, that «Ignores, belittles, harms and mistreats the Island» for its decision not to budget for the start of work on the new Tenerife South terminal.
Ashotel. “Three million euros for an infrastructure like this is not to do something important”, reflects the president of the Hotel and Non-Hotel Association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro (Ashotel), Agustín Marichal. «They are saying no to everything. They are wrong, “he assures before advocating because the political representatives forcefully convey that” a terminal that is amortized must be renewed, in an airport that has a profitability so important that AENA cannot make financial excuses.
The DORA aggravates the loss of competitiveness of the tourist destination Tenerife because “the only interventions it is contemplating are at the airports of Madrid, Barcelona and Paloma de Mallorca, our national competitors.” Marichal maintains that the Government of Spain “is not up to Tenerife South to provide it with a competitive and modern terminal.” The proximity of the date on which the Airport Regulation Document will be approved reduces the room for maneuver: “Things are quite complicated, but we must press for the Canarian Government to force the legally established bodies to meet for situations like this”, in allusion to the Canary Islands Airport Committee.
Fepeco. “AENA has been despising the economy and society of one of the world’s leading tourist destinations for many years, especially the Tenerife Sur airport. He treats us as if we were a colony. ” The construction employers show great discomfort through Óscar Izquierdo. The president of the Provincial Federation of Construction Entities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Fepeco) considers it “shameful” that, while this behavior is being recorded towards the Island, the Tenerife politicians “do not raise their voices in Madrid to defend us from this outrage ».
Izquierdo demands an explanation of the destination of the profits generated by the Reina Sofía Airport and that the percentage that reverts to it be reported. His suspicion is that this money “AENA invests it in other complexes on the Peninsula”. In his opinion, the South aerodrome is experiencing “an unsustainable situation” at the moment when it “needs a state-of-the-art terminal.” For this reason, it requires the mercantile company “that the millionaire investments made in the airports of the Peninsula also reach Tenerife South.” An achievement that would be achieved “if there were forcefulness in all the Canarian public representatives before their parties.”
FAST. Critical voices with AENA increase in the business sector, including that linked to tourism. “It has built new terminals in the airports of the Peninsula and the Islands, except in Tenerife South, despite being, relatively, the most profitable in Spain, with more than 100 million benefits obtained each year from the Reina Sofía”, argues José Fernando Cabrera, hotelier and president of the Foro Amigos del Sur de Tenerife (FAST).
Public fact that the construction of the new Granadilla airport terminal is not contemplated in the DORA that will be approved by the central government on the last Tuesday of this month, Cabrera admits that «now, at the last minute and against the clock, our possibility is that, in addition to the fees to prepare the project, including an item, even a small one, that guarantees the start of the works and its continuity in the next investment plan.
CEST. Roberto Ucelay, hotelier and president of the Círculo de Empresarios y Profesionales del Sur de Tenerife (CEST), speaks along the same lines. That of claiming “10 million to develop the project requested by civil society in Tenerife for one of the main tourist airports in the country.” But that item must be completed with another of 110 million “to start the work in the last period of DORA.” Excluding this last investment “is something very negative for tourism, the economy, activity and employment on the Island.”
Canary Coalition. Carlos Alonso defines that measure as «an attack on the interests of the citizens of Tenerife ». The nationalist spokesman in the Cabildo demands unity to “demand that it be built now.” It is the approach that will be transferred to the extraordinary plenary session that will be held (at the request of the CC) at 12:00 on Monday. “We hope to reach an agreement to defend our rights. We extend our hand once again and we will support Pedro Martín if he demands that the terminal be built in the period 2022-2026 ». Alonso attributes to the island president “delay in defending the construction of the terminal.” It is based on the fact that the plenary session was requested in mid-August and on the lack of response to a letter that was sent to him on the 22nd of the same month, proposing unanimity. On September 8, the proposal for an institutional agreement was formalized before all parties.
New meeting before the 28th
Pedro Martín, president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, will hold another meeting with representatives of AENA before the Council of Ministers approves the Airport Regulation Document (DORA) 2022-2026, next day 28. The parties did not reach an agreement on the needs from Tenerife South Airport that must be part of it. Martín put on the table of the meeting held in Madrid the need to significantly increase the 3.5 million that are reflected in the document to draft the project for the new Reina Sofía terminal. However, the president of the Cabildo defends that what is necessary is a project that encompasses a comprehensive action in Tenerife South and thereby avoid partial interventions, as up to now. It should be remembered that AENA explained, last month, that the largest amounts of the investment projects in capacity foreseen in DORA II (2022-2026) are transferred to DORA III (2027-2031) because of the covid, but maintains the wording of the project of a new terminal in Tenerife South. This site is a priority for AENA, although the crisis has forced the investment calendar to be adjusted, as in the rest of the airports in the network.
