The Socialist Territorial Group of the Canary Islands in the Upper House, through the senator for Tenerife Pedro Anatael Meneses, has presented a motion to the Senate Board to request the State "the urgent study of an airline with a Public Service Obligation (PSO) declaration that ensures connectivity with the Archipelago in terms of regularity, capacity and schedules."
This request, which will be debated in the next Committee on Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda of the Upper House, is in addition to the one already presented by the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing, Sebastián Franquis, to agree on the establishment, on an experimental basis, of a Canary Islands-Peninsula PSO that allows controlling the rise in air ticket prices.
In this sense, the Canarian socialist senators want to emphasize the "importance of taking urgent measures to alleviate the greatest structural weakness of the islands due to their condition as a fragmented and remote island territory, which directly affects their economic and social development. The Canarians need a solution, since this situation affects attendance at medical consultations, studies or work in the Peninsula, and the only means of transport, in this case, is the plane."
Meneses recalls that already in 2020, at the request of the Ministry of Transport, the National Commission of Markets and Competition issued a report in which it made a series of recommendations in the face of the increases, confirmed by the study itself, in the prices of flights in the Balearic and Canary Islands since the increase in the resident discount to 75% occurred. "We must correct this situation as soon as possible, since the air transport sector is fundamental for the economic and social cohesion of the non-peninsular territories," Meneses highlights.
Advantages of establishing a PSO
"The provision of a public service obligation route allows establishing maximum reference prices, as well as guaranteeing a minimum provision of regular services in terms of continuity, regularity and minimum capacity. In this way, the lack of accessibility is alleviated, which causes economic, social and territorial segregation," the socialists point out.
The Canarian socialists emphasize the importance of "making urgent decisions on connectivity and transport, not only to guarantee tourist accessibility, but also for citizens who live in the Canary Islands, preventing abusive prices or the unjustified increase of the same, generating negative consequences on transport bonuses."
