The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, stated this Wednesday that he is "absolutely open" to improving the formulas for coordination in the management of airports, but "without jeopardizing" the network model that he believes is yielding such good results.
Puente responded in this way in the Plenary Session of Congress to the deputy from Coalición Canaria, Cristina Valido, who asked him "When does the Government of Spain plan to comply with article 161 of the Statute of Autonomy of the Canary Islands, which recognizes the archipelago's right to the planning and co-management of its airports?".
The head of Transport stated he is "sure" that the Government and communities can reach an understanding on this matter and proposed sitting down to dialogue to find formulas that, while maintaining the current network model, "improve solutions for the territories due to their specificity, as is the case of the Canary Islands".
The deputy from Coalición Canaria argued that the Statute of Autonomy is clear regarding the space for decision and participation that the autonomous community must have and stressed that what it establishes "are rights, it is law, it is not a technical matter, it is a political, territorial, equality, social cohesion matter".
She mentioned that the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, has opened that possibility to the Basque Country and also in the Canary Islands with a bilateral commission that met last week and is starting its work, but, in contrast, the statements by the president of AENA or the Secretary of State for Transport this very Tuesday in Committee "are of absolute rejection of this participation".
In her opinion, in AENA, the 49% of private capital weighs more than the 51% public, so the "feeling" is that "dividends for private entities" are "more important than the rights and public service to Canarians".
"Canarian airports are not just another business," defended Valido, who asked the minister "to impose the Statute, to impose public service over private interests".
In his response, the head of Transport said he is "absolutely willing to improve coordination with the territories in terms of airport management," but clarified that it is a "network" management that "must start from a constitutional principle, which is attributed by the Constitution to the Government of Spain".
Óscar Puente declared that the airports of the Canary Islands are a "success story" and "work very well" and took the opportunity to remind that "the Government of Spain subsidizes up to 75% of the cost of tickets for Canarian men and women in their travel needs".
Regarding AENA, he highlighted that it is the sixth company by stock market capitalization in the Ibex 35 and the world's leading airport manager, "the one that all countries want to undertake the management of their airports".
