The Cabildo of Lanzarote demands that the central government in office fulfill its "commitment" of the Legislature and declare the Lanzarote-Madrid route as a Public Service Obligation.
“The government program between PSOE and Sumar, which we learned about this Tuesday, includes the Menorca-Barcelona route as a pilot experience for Public Service Obligation, but leaves Lanzarote out despite the fact that the previous Government of the Canary Islands sold us the idea that the agreement was done,” according to Oswaldo Betancort.
The previous Minister of Public Works, Transportation and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, announced last March on the island, with the presence of Dolores Corujo, the launch of the first Canary Islands-Peninsula air route with the character of Public Service Obligation (PSO), which would be applied on an experimental basis between Lanzarote and Madrid, after the agreement reached between the Ministry and the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda.
“Now that agreement, which met all the requirements and allowed to limit the price of tickets between Lanzarote and Madrid, has come to nothing. We demand that Pedro Sánchez fulfill the commitment assumed and incorporate the Lanzarote-Madrid route into his government agenda, in order to avoid what would be a discrimination for the mobility rights of the citizens of this island,” Betancort pointed out.
What is intended with this pilot experience of the PSO is to "recover the tariff balance" that existed prior to July 2018 when the 50% subsidy was applied, and that later, with the approval of the increase to 75% subsidy on routes between the Canary Islands and the Peninsula, the price of tickets experienced a "runaway increase" of around 28%.
In the field of air transport, one of the main tools used by the Member States of the European Union to guarantee territorial cohesion is the establishment of Public Service Obligations (PSO) on those air routes in which the application of the general rules of the free market "does not guarantee adequate mobility" of citizens in terms of availability or prices.
On routes where these circumstances exist and under very specific conditions, as an exception to the general regime of freedom of access to the market and price fixing, governments may impose minimum conditions that airlines wishing to operate on the route will have to meet, and which refer to maximum prices, minimum number of flights, minimum capacity (seats), operating hours, etc.
When no airline is willing to comply with the conditions imposed on the route, the State may then award the provision of the service exclusively and through a public tender process, to an airline that will be compensated for the economic deficit incurred by the provision of services.
