Welcome to Tenerife South, the airport with the kilometer-long queues of tourists for a taxi

The stampwhich gives so much bad image of the island, It has been occurring in recent months at the time of most flight arrivals to Tenerife South. It especially affects the waiting area for a taxi.

The problem is due to several factors: the fact that only taxis from Granadilla and San Miguel de Abona can pick up passengers with the current regulations, the traffic jams on the nearby Southern Highway and that the protocol has not been developed in this airport area as sensitive areastatement that was approved by the Tenerife Cabildo in 2012 but it was not developed.

This sensitive area declarationthat has not been implemented although now wants to resume the new island government chaired by the nationalist Rosa Dávila, would allow that in extraordinary circumstances, such as times of massive flight arrivals, Taxis from other municipalities can also pick up passengers.

After several videos and images of these were released queues of shame outside Tenerife South since November, new images return. Specific, this friday night the queues were repeated againas happened in previous days, as appears in another video to which EL DÍA has had access.

After the Council would announce that recovers the project to declare the South airport as a sensitive areato end this problem, The Granadilla de Abona City Council, whose mayor is the socialist Jennifer Miranda, unanimously decided in the plenary session on November 30 to reject this declaration.

The decision, which involves refusal to allow taxis from municipalities other than Granadilla and San Miguel de Abona to pick up passengers at the southern airport except in very exceptional cases, it is because For the Government of Granada the main problem is traffic jams on the highway and other roads around the airport.

The reality is that the Kilometer-long lines of tourists waiting for a taxi or a bus were repeated this Friday night at a time when the Southern Highway was not collapsed.

He Cabildo de Tenerife is aware of these new queueswhich has also happened on other previous days, in full Christmas holidaysin full tourist high season and with numerous flights that land and take off from the also called Reina Sofía airport.

He Granada City Council opposed the declaration of a sensitive area in the most forceful way possible: through an institutional motion supported unanimously by the entire plenary session.

The aforementioned motion, presented by the members of the Granada Government (PSOE and PP), includes a action protocol in cases where the queue of passengers waiting for a taxi at the airport exceeds 20 minutes.

In these cases, according to the protocol approved in plenary session, the measure will be activated by which the units of Granadilla de Abona and San Miguel that are not on guard within their municipalities will enter the premises.

“Only if these units were insufficient, would taxi drivers from other municipalities be allowed to pick up fares, as long as they have accessed the airport to drop off clients, an issue that will be controlled by the stop manager who carries out his duties at the airport,” said the Granadilla de Abona City Council it’s a statement.

Are measureshowever, They seem to have had no effect at times of busiest air traffic in Tenerife Southwhich must be remembered that it is the second most important airport in Canary Islands and the seventh from Spain. It received 10.8 million passengers and 75,600 operations throughout 2022.

Tour operators consulted by EL DÍA criticize the disorganization of the airport taxi service and the fact that although exceptional measures are applied, the lines are so long that residents and tourists who use this airport are forced to wait more than an hour to get transportation.