The president of the Partido Popular de Lanzarote, Astrid Pérez, denounces that the rise in air fees ratified by AENA "represents a new blow to the Canary Islands and a direct threat to the connectivity, competitiveness and mobility of the islands".
Astrid Pérez emphasizes that unlike other peninsular territories, Canarias does not have real alternatives to air transport, a key piece for guaranteeing the social and economic cohesion of the archipelago. “It is not only about tourism —the main economic engine of the islands—, but also about the daily life of thousands of Canarians who need to travel for work, educational, or health reasons, or to connect between islands and with the rest of the national territory.”
For the president of the Popular Party, "it is unacceptable for the socialist officials on the island to continue looking the other way and remaining silent in the face of the new outrage that the State Government is going to perpetrate against the interests of Canarians and Lanzaroteños, who have been enduring 'systematic mistreatment' for seven years by President Sánchez". “The threat and blackmail from AENA is intolerable, which, more or less, conditions future works at the airport on the increase in air fees when the truth is that in recent years no significant investments have been made in either of the two terminals of César Manrique Lanzarote”.
Astrid Pérez recalls and also adds the “manifest neglect of the airport entity towards the surroundings and landscaped areas of the premises”, which for more than a year have remained "in a complete state of abandonment causing an absolutely lamentable image of the first gateway to the island".
The leader of the Lanzarote popular party stresses that while this is happening, AENA annually records record profits "without all the planned investments in the Canary Islands being completed". “This new blow protected by the State Government has no economic justification, beyond increasing revenue, which is clearly completely unfair to the islands,” Pérez states.
For the Partido Popular, "the silence and complicity" of the national public officials of the PSOE of Lanzarote regarding the increase in fees results in a "mockery for the interests of the island and of the citizenry" which, "once again, will be the most affected by a measure that clashes head-on with the singularity of the archipelago as a peripheral and fragmented territory". "This increase will end up raising the price of tickets for both residents and visitors, directly affecting the pockets of Lanzarote families and reducing the competitiveness of our tourist destination, which is why we trust that they will carry out the appropriate steps to halt the measure," concludes the president of the Partido Popular.
