The deputy of Nueva Canarias (NC) in Congress, Pedro Quevedo, has requested the state government to open the terminal for inter-island flights in Lanzarote, which was closed with the reopening of T1 upon entering the "new normal".
The NC parliamentarian, through the registration of several questions for Pedro Sánchez's cabinet to answer in writing, questions the decision of Spanish Airports and Air Navigation (AENA) to concentrate all operations in one of the two terminals, of departures and arrivals from abroad, the Peninsula and between islands, "given the absence of mechanisms that guarantee effective health protection and safety against the coronavirus".
Quevedo has reacted in this way to the announcement of the César Manrique airport to unify, since June 21, the operations of departure and arrival flights from terminals 1 (national and international) and 2 (inter-island), coinciding with the end of the state of alarm and the restrictions imposed on mobility.
"Since that date, all boarding and disembarkation operations are carried out in the terminal," said Quevedo, who criticizes that the passengers residing in the Archipelago, and specifically in Lanzarote, are "obliged" to transit jointly "with foreign passengers, both from the rest of the State and from abroad" when it is "avoidable, very simply, keeping both terminals operational."
Specifically, Pedro Quevedo has asked the state government about the criteria considered by AENA, and consequently by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda of José Luis Ábalos to unify the operations of both terminals; and if the Government of the Canary Islands has been consulted to organize airport security measures, as required by article 161.2 of the Statute of Autonomy on participation in the planning and management of Canarian aerodromes.
Insists on carrying out PCR or tests at origin
In addition, the NC deputy has insisted on questioning that "this decision was adopted without guaranteeing measures to ensure protection against the coronavirus." In that sense, he has defended, once again, that carrying out PCR tests or another test at origin is the "most effective" measure." Temperature controls and the sworn declaration at the destination are "insufficient" in the opinion of progressive nationalists.
After pointing out that the Government of the Canary Islands also defends the tests at origin, Quevedo recalled that the Lower House, without votes against, has urged Sánchez's cabinet to develop policies that facilitate travel to the Canary Islands from the main issuing countries, guaranteeing the safety of visitors, workers and residents. An objective that must be developed, according to the approved motion, through air corridors or, where appropriate, the formalization of reciprocity agreements with other territories, seeking the most appropriate formula to have a prior diagnosis of visitors before their stay in the destination.
For these reasons, Queveso de has been interested, with his questions, in the actions of Ábalos's ministerial department to guarantee that travelers arriving from outside the islands are free of the coronavirus or can be tracked to ensure that the Archipelago is "a safe destination".
In addition, the NC deputy has warned of the "special vulnerability" to infectious diseases of the hundreds of residents of the non-capital islands who, as in Lanzarote, are forced to receive health treatment in Gran Canaria or Tenerife given the severity of their pathologies.
