This agreement is based on a proposal from the Canary Islands Coalition (CC) – requesting the convocation of the plenary session – amended by PSOE, Ciudadanos and Partido Popular. He himself arrives eight days after the Council of Ministers approves – on Tuesday, 28 – the DORA II, in which financing is not contemplated to execute the new terminal and only 3.5 million are reflected to draw up your project. Something that will continue like this if the refusal to this expressed in Congress by the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, to the deputy of the PP for Tenerife, Ana Zurita, is confirmed. Manuel Fernández, insular councilor of the Popular Party, assured this before the plenary session yesterday.
Those words contradict the optimism expressed by the CC spokesperson, Carlos Alonso, who said he was “hopeful” and convinced that “it will be achieved.” This, despite the fact that “AENA has not understood Tenerife for a long time nor is it keeping pace with what the Island needs”. The nationalist advisor emphasizes that “it is time for politics”, because the decision on the content of the Airport Regulation Document now belongs to the Government of Spain, with the support of the Government of the Canary Islands.
However, in the PP wonder where the regional Executive is, which does not raise this demand nor does it require the convening of the Airport Coordination Committee, contemplated in the Statute of Autonomy. The objective of the Plenary will be achieved with “only a political miracle,” defends Manuel Fernández. “We have to have clear ideas, first, to ask, later,” he says after introducing the construction of the second runway in Tenerife South recalling the request made in this regard by the president of the Cabildo, in February of last year, before the same forum. «We do not entangle. Now the objective is where we have to put it », replies Pedro Martín.
The resource of being one of the most profitable airports in the network in Spain was also used to justify this work that Enrique Arriaga, vice president of the Insular Corporation, defends as necessary and as part of the forecast and planning of the development of tourist activity until 2030, the year in which he expects the building to come into service. In his opinion, the work should begin in 2025.
“This is not the tourism model we want” and the Island “is not going to support it,” responds the spokesperson for Sí Podemos, María José Belda, the only voice that disagrees with the plenary agreement. He justifies the rejection of this work with the argument that it contravenes the Declaration of Climate Emergency approved by the Cabildo at the beginning of the mandate – he repeatedly qualified it as “dead paper” – and does not conform to the Sustainable Development Goals. He reproaches the rest of the Plenary for “working for economic interests” and ensures that the existing terminal “never” has reached its maximum capacity level. As an alternative, it proposes that the investment in the Reina Sofía be allocated to nurseries, playgrounds, a left-luggage area for suitcases, in “comfortable armchairs” for users and in “sharing profits with Los Rodeos Airport.”
A proposal for the future
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martin, Maintains that “Tenerife South Airport needs a new terminal and a comprehensive remodeling project”. In that message, which he maintains over time, he includes that it is a question of proposing “a solution as a whole, not piecemeal,” to move away from the “result of improvisation” that has occurred with the investment made so far, he says. Its maximum expression is the second terminal, unused since its construction was completed in 2008, he clarifies. He denies that the agreement of the insular plenary session is incompatible with the Sustainable Development Goals and defends that what was approved “is a proposal for the future.” In his opinion, in the Airport Regulation Document “Tenerife Sur has to have its investment, whether or not it is made in El Prat”, the Barcelona airport. Martín Domínguez guarantees that the construction of the new terminal “is what the South wants.”
Carlos Alonso (CC) regrets that the agreement adopted by the Plenary of the Cabildo is not unanimously (Sí Podemos votes against) and links the need for the new terminal to tourism. “Tenerife has a future and is a quality destination,” he says to defend that the work demanded by the Insular Corporation from AENA and the central government is necessary for this. “This type of agreement helps to change it,” he points out before requesting that the social and economic front be maintained, whose members he asks to “reinforce their pronouncements” so that the Canarian Government transfers it to the central Executive. Line in which Enrique Arriaga (Cs) agrees, who expects “the unanimous voice against Madrid.”
The demand
The agreement adopted by the Plenary yesterday contemplates expand the space for passengers in services related to waiting, commercial and boarding; by way of Madrid Barajas T4, integrate a new building, central to the existing ones –including the connection one, under construction–, for billing, company commercials, baggage control and security; comprehensively rehabilitate the buildings by constructing the new terminal with a high level of architectural quality and functional design and include a building for the separate reception of private aviation passengers or jets.
Martín talks about the maritime connection
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, appeared yesterday before the Plenary, at his own request and in an extraordinary session, to report on the agreement with the Regional Council of Public Works to prepare a study to determine the best option for maritime transport between the Western Islands. He clarified that the expiration of the Environmental Impact Declaration of the Fonsalía project opens another scenario and explained that “no proposal starts with an advantage.” In the session, laden with reproaches –especially by the PSOE spokesperson, María Ana Franquet–, towards the change of criteria of CC and its spokesperson, Carlos Alonso, it was said that “we started from zero” 30 years after consider the Fonsalía project (Arriaga, from Cs), from the suspicions of a speculative operation (Belda, from Sí Podemos) and that it is necessary to act now in Los Cristianos (Alonso, from CC). Zaida González (PP) focused on criticizing the role of the president in this matter.
