Sumar Canarias movement has expressed this Tuesday its outright rejection of the approval of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility's Airport Regulation Document 2027-2031 (Dora III), with an investment of 1.807 billion euros in the archipelago's airports.
In the case of César Manrique Airport in Lanzarote, it closed with almost nine million users last year even though its current facilities are designed to serve just over eight million.
The party denounces that, under the pretext of "modernization," this measure actually seeks to "expand operational capacity and prepare the islands for a massive increase in visitors that the territory can no longer support."
For Sumar Canarias, the current air traffic figures are a reflection of "a model that has surpassed all ecological and social limits." According to the latest official data published by Aena, between January and August of this year, 36.3 million passengers passed through the archipelago's terminals on 324,581 flights. "This represents unsustainable daily pressure: an average of almost 150,000 travelers and more than 1,330 flights every day," the party has denounced.
"Continuing to invest public money in infrastructure aimed at unlimited growth, while the Canary Islands' population suffers from road collapse, the deterioration of their natural spaces, and expulsion from the housing market, is an absolute irresponsibility," declares Rubén Hernández, co-coordinator of Movimiento Sumar Canarias.
Housing emergency and tourist overcrowding
The party emphasizes the direct link between this increase in passenger volume and the severe housing crisis suffered by residents. "The diversion of properties to holiday rentals and speculative tourism business has caused the local population to find neither available housing nor affordable prices," it added in a statement.
Sumar Canarias recalls that Dora III itself contemplates an increase of more than five and a half million passengers in the Canary Islands airports in 2031 compared to 2027, a roadmap "completely disconnected" from the demands of the thousands of people who have taken to the streets of the islands in recent years demanding a radical change in the economic model.
Faced with the claims of Aena and the Ministry of Transport, the co-coordinator declares that "Canary Islands does not need more airport capacity; it needs fewer people to come," they have highlighted. "The modernization of infrastructures cannot be the Trojan horse to continue massifying our land," he added.
The organization has argued that political priority must focus on reducing tourist pressure to guarantee the well-being of the local population, protect the archipelago's biodiversity, and ensure access to the fundamental right to housing, and it demands the application of ecotaxes, the limitation of housing purchases by non-residents, and the establishment of caps on tourist capacity.
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