The average cost of the plane ticket for journeys from Canary Islands to the Peninsula increased on average so far this year by 18% for residents, and 19% for non-residentsas reported yesterday by the Ministry of Transport to the regional government after analyzing the data from the Price Observatory It depends on that department. The connection that has become more expensive is the one that links the airports of Tenerife with Barcelonaalthough most of the routes and especially the one of Gran Canaria with Madrid and the Catalan capital. However, the price has been reduced in the links between Lanzarote and Madrid.
These data were provided this Wednesday by the Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Isabel Pardo de Verato the Minister of Transport of the regional Executive, Sebastian Franquisand served to frame the negotiations between both parties to establish some type of price control mechanism in air links with the Peninsula and put a stop, above all, to the peaks of increaseof up to five times its value compared to other periods, which occur at Christmas and during the summer.
Franquis presented to the Secretary of State some of the conclusions that were agreed between the four non-peninsular territories, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, in the summit held in February 2020, especially the study of measures that avoid disproportionate increases at certain times of the year. Both parties have agreed to create a working group whose first task will be to analyze the evolution of the price journey by journey and evaluate the possible measures to be adopted. This work is intended to be launched immediately to offer a price control proposal as soon as possible.
One of the options being considered, that the Government of the Canary Islands has already transferred to the Ministry and that the socialist senators of the Islands intend to raise as a motion in the Upper House, is the establishment of a Public Service Obligation (PSO) on one of the routes most affected by this increase in the price of the ticket. It would initially affect a single connection with the Peninsula on a trial basis to see if its operation affects or not the number of flights and times on that route and therefore connectivity, with the possibility of extending it to other routes.
“In the analysis we are going to specify what possible measures are being studied in the legal field, to see if there is any possibility of establishing an OSP, which is what the Government is studying. That is one of the possible formulas”, assured Franquis, recalling that However, the OSP has the handicap of Brussels’ opposition to this formula on routes where there is competition between companies. “The government is also concerned about the price increase because in the case of residents it pays 75% of the cost. He is very interested in looking for measures to control prices, but that does not lead to a reduction in the places that are put on offer or reduce connectivity, ”he emphasized. In this sense, he points out that “any measure not studied could produce the undesirable effect of reducing the offer and the number of places or schedules and that there are casualties of the companies that operate on the affected routes.”
To put this whole plan into action, The Government of the Canary Islands is also going to summon the airlines that operate between the Canary Islands and the different destinations on the Peninsula to get involved in possible solutions. “I hope that in the coming weeks we will have conclusions from this working group and we can already study the measures to be adopted,” said Franquis, who insisted that “there must be a balanced response to limit prices in its growth without affecting the connectivity”. “It is necessary to guarantee the maintenance of the largest number of companies and the competition between them because that also helps prices not to skyrocket,” he said.
