The Cabildo of Lanzarote has agreed to initiate a file to declare the César Manrique Airport as a "sensitive area" for the transfer of travelers by taxi in view of the "significant increase" in passenger demand and the "number of airport operations."
A sensitive area is a point, whether it is a port, airport, interchange, transport station or other space, that generates significant traffic and that can affect communication between municipalities, between islands "or in the attention to tourists."
Following complaints about the lack of vehicles and the long wait to get a taxi in times of high demand, the island government group has announced changes in the sector, in the face of the reluctance of taxi associations that have mobilized.
According to the Cabildo, the growth of travelers at the Lanzarote Airport "evidences the insufficiency of the number of licenses" that are operating in the municipality. However, the president of the Ajey Tamia Taxi Cooperative of San Bartolomé, Echeyde Padrón, spoke this Thursday in the morning show Buenos días, Lanzarote and indicated that he does not understand why this declaration is not extended to other spaces on the island where there are also quite a few agglomerations. These include ports, airports, interchanges and street markets.
Thus, he pointed out that the declaration of a sensitive area only at the Airport "surprises" them and seems like "harassment", taking into account "all the problems that exist throughout the island territory."
In an agreement signed by the Minister of Transport, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, this past May 9, the first island institution highlights that although there is "reasonable" transport infrastructure and the quality of service is "adequate" in periods of low activity, the service has a significant deficiency in "peak hours." Meanwhile, Padrón has indicated that this file should have been approved by "an ordinary plenary session."
Echeyde Padrón has also pointed out that from the sector they are "quite tired of this government group", formed by Coalición Canaria and the Partido Popular, "with the complicity with certain informative lobbies and in complicity with the Chamber of Commerce, Asolan and certain associations of restaurateurs that carry out a smear campaign against the sector."
Thus, at the beginning of the file, the Cabildo defends that "this deficiency" implies "unbearable" waiting times and "deteriorates" the image of the service. The first institution has given fifteen business days to the affected town councils and associations to present allegations.
The president of the Ajey Tamia Taxi Cooperative of San Bartolomé has assured that with this decision the Cabildo "gives legal protection" to a practice that is done "assiduously" in the municipality, which is "to request collaboration from all the municipalities whenever necessary."
Thus, he has highlighted that the sector already had an ordinance from the San Bartolomé Town Council that gave the green light to this practice and has accused the Cabildo of not "having acted or done its job." In addition, he recalled that the Cabildo of Lanzarote took the consistory to court over this issue.
Finally, Echeyde Padrón has highlighted that they are not willing to go through with the arrival of the VTC: "Nor do we believe that the entry of this type of platform is necessary if things are done as they should be done, counting on the sector and trying not to impose things that are not viable."
