SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Dec. 5 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The national secretary general of the Canary Islands Coalition, Fernando Clavijo, has demanded that the Government of Spain control “abusive” fares on flights to the Peninsula and has warned that the focus on the “prohibitive” rise in air ticket prices “You should put it in the airlines, not the Canary Islands or the 75 percent discount for residents included in the Economic and Fiscal Regime of the Canary Islands.”
This was stated at a press conference held today Monday in which, accompanied by the regional deputy and candidate for the Presidency of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, he demanded an investigation by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC). by a possible “price agreement” between the airlines.
In this context, Fernando Clavijo warned of the “exorbitant” rise in the prices of air tickets that, according to what he said, limits mobility and is causing a real problem for the Canaries who want to return home this Christmas and who are seeing how not to they can because of the “alarming” increase in air fares.
The nationalist leader blamed the Government of Spain but also the Government of the Canary Islands “for remaining idly by on such an important issue for the Archipelago.” Clavijo assured that it is not enough to say that it is being studied. How many study commissions do they need? he wondered.
In the same way, he insisted on ceasing that every time this issue comes up, the subject is put in the spotlight of the 75 percent discount for Canarian residents “as if we were criminals instead of looking for responsibilities in the airline operators,” he sentenced. .
The senator for the Autonomous Community blamed the Government of the Canary Islands for the current situation: “In the last three and a half years they have not moved a single finger to avoid a price rise that is generating real mobility problems, which will prevent many Canaries from they can return home this Christmas or that they can move to see their relatives in the Peninsula, to which must be added the damage to the tourism sector and the Canarian economy”.
At this point, he added that territorial cohesion “is guaranteed not only with connectivity, which is now guaranteed if we take frequencies into account, but also with the control of rates.” “This work has neither been done nor has it been required by the Government of the Canary Islands,” he added.
Fernando Clavijo stated that this “inaction, this lack of interest and this inability is paid for by the Canaries”, and advocated changing this reality “with planning, work and management”. In this sense, he assured that today this situation would not have come to pass “if only they had done something of what the Governments of the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla announced in 2020 at the Summit held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to address the problem of the price increase after the entry into force of the 75 percent resident discount” that “stayed in a photo inn”.
“Today, three years later, none of the conclusions of that Summit have been implemented; today, three years later, the Canaries have their ability to travel to any other point on the Peninsula increasingly reduced and neither the Government of Spain nor that of the Canary Islands do anything to avoid it,” he lamented.
The candidate for the Presidency of the Canary Islands also stressed that the Canary Islands “is increasingly far from the continent and both the State and the Canary Islands Executive are accomplices in the abuse of power that the airlines are exercising.”
Likewise, Fernando Clavijo insisted that none of the requests from the Summit of the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla have gone ahead: “Nor creation of a permanent table State-extra-peninsular territories to monitor and control, nor have Obligations of Public Service for certain routes with the Peninsula, the price of plane tickets has not been controlled, nor have studies on the increase in prices been made transparent, nor has the shared management of airports been allowed -also included in the Statute of Autonomy- nor has It has not followed up on the acquisition of Air Europa by the IAG Group nor has it claimed from the competent authorities fiscal or economic measures that may affect air connectivity with extra-peninsular territories”.
The leader of the Canarian nationalists highlighted the “seriousness of a situation in which the governments of Spain and the Canary Islands are being accomplices.” In this regard, he added that it is “perverse” that the application of the 75 percent resident discount was intended to promote mobility but what it is doing “is enriching the airlines because the Canaries do not pay the same as before its entry into force, is that right now they pay more to travel”.
“NO ALTERNATIVE”
For her part, the deputy of the Canarian Nationalist Group, Rosa Dávila, maintained that in the case of the Canary Islands “there is no alternative, the ship is not an alternative as it can be in the Balearic Islands, in Ceuta or Melilla.” In this way, he recalled the demands of the Canarian nationalists both in the Cortes and in the Canary Islands to demand “from the control of the monopoly that Iberia and Air Europa are developing, to the co-management of the Canarian airports, to the control of abusive prices or the new OSP Canary Islands and Peninsula”.
“Until now the answer has always been a no, which is denying mobility to the Canaries and throwing stones at a tourism sector that continues to bear the impact of the pandemic and inflation,” he added.
Dávila emphasized the situation of many Canaries: “It is impossible that with these prices the Canaries who live abroad can return on designated dates, nor can families be reunited” and warned that this also “transfers to the Canarian economy.”
The also candidate for the Presidency of the Cabildo de Tenerife ruled that the Canary Islands “today are further from the Peninsula” and warned that the increase in prices could cause “the fracture of the Canary Islands with the continent” if the Governments of the Canary Islands and Spain do not act urgently.
