The Secretary General of Air and Maritime Transport, Benito Núñez, assures that, with the extensions to the budget allocated to the program of subsidies for air transport for non-mainland residents, the files sent by the airlines during last summer are currently being paid, and he does not see the connectivity with these territories compromised.
Núñez explained this Tuesday in the Transportation Committee of Congress that the credits from the budget item for this subsidy are expandable, so that, once the corresponding item in the current budget is exhausted, a new allocation is made to satisfy the bonuses for all flights taken.
This character is the very provision that the regulation establishes regarding its possibility of budgetary management when the budgets contemplate items that are forecasts and that do not have to conform to the final scenario, he has nuanced.
In his response to a question from the Popular Parliamentary Group regarding the measures planned by the Government to catch up on payments derived from resident bonuses, whose accumulated debt already exceeds 700 million euros and could reach 1.2 billion, the secretary general has denied that such debt exists.
Núñez has acknowledged that the management of these extensions has caused delays in some cases, but this month an extraordinary credit of 319 million euros has been approved to cover the outstanding credits of 2024, which have almost entirely been translated into the corresponding payments by the Bank of Spain.
In 2025, in addition to the 560 million euros included in the current budgets, credit extensions of more than 383 million have already been added, bringing the total budget allocated to meet the subsidy program for the transport of residents in the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla to more than 940 million euros.
With these extensions, the files sent by the airlines last summer are currently being paid, he added.
In this regard, he indicated that, once a file is received, the pertinent verifications are carried out, exercising the control and supervision functions stipulated in the general law of subsidies with the greatest possible diligence, but without neglecting the rigorous verification obligations required by the regulations to guarantee the proper use of the assigned funds, a process that lasts approximately three months.
Neither the frequency nor the connectivity is at risk
Regarding connectivity, he highlighted that this year there is a record of air traffic in Spain and, since July and August, both in the Balearic Islands and in the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, the number of passengers has been higher than that registered in the same months of last year in each of their markets.
Likewise, according to the seats that airlines are scheduling for the winter season, a very stable market is observed.
In the Canary Islands, companies have scheduled nearly 15 million seats; in the Balearic Islands, almost five million; and in Melilla, more than 150,000.
In Ceuta, which is not an infrastructure with a coordinated nature, this specific information is not available, but the helicopter services maintain the usual frequencies.
And these figures are practically the same as the seat offer last year.
In summary, there is no 700 million euro debt and, in view of both seat forecasts and passenger numbers, "we do not see either the frequency of flights or connectivity compromised in a record year for traffic in non-mainland territories," he concluded.
