"It is a senseless act with unpredictable consequences." This is how Turismo Lanzarote has expressed itself, after learning of Aena's decision to reduce the operating hours of Guacimeta airport starting next November. "It is a wrong decision, which reduces the competitiveness of Lanzarote and the island's tourism sector," said the Minister of Tourism, Carmen Steinert. Guacimeta will move its closing time forward by one hour.
"This decision is not understood when Lanzarote airport was not on the list on which Aena will apply the Airport Efficiency Plan launched by the Ministry of Development. But it is even less understood when Guacimeta is one of the only nine national airports that are profitable", Steinert said.
The Lanzarote airport generated profits worth 8.67 million euros after taxes during the 2011 financial year, being the fifth most profitable of the 49 managed by Aena throughout the country, according to data provided by the company itself. "There are no logical, rational, or economic criteria that justify giving the same treatment to Guacimeta airport as to deficit and lower traffic airports such as Menorca, Bilbao, and Reus, among others that the Ministry has added at the last minute to the Airport Efficiency Plan," said the Minister of Tourism of the Cabildo.
Guacimeta airport had a traffic of 5,543,744 passengers in 2011 and carried out a total of 49,675 operations. In 2010, it received 4,938,343 passengers and operated on 46,669 aircraft. In 2009, it moved 4,701,669 people and carried out 42,915 operations. "These figures clearly reflect that it is a living airport in constant growth," Steinert defended.
For the Turismo Lanzarote team, the measure that Fomento will apply is also "a serious obstacle to the promotional strategy that is being worked on". "It is useless for us to work to open new markets if the regulations imposed on our airport infrastructure do not allow us to offer the best possible coverage. Far from this reduction, what Guacimeta airport needs is greater schedule flexibility to serve long-distance flights, which require special temporary conditions for their operation, and to cover possible delays, a circumstance that is always taken into account among airlines," they point out.
Wrong policies of Fomento
In any case, Turismo Lanzarote considers that the reduction of Guacimeta airport's hours is "one more of the wrong policies" that the Ministry of Development is developing. From the area coordinated by Carmen Steinert, it is considered that the disappearance of bonuses and the increase in airport taxes, among other measures that have been applied recently such as the need to travel with a certificate of residence, constitute in themselves a "serious threat" to the tourism sector of the archipelago, which is becoming isolated from other destinations.
"In addition to being incomprehensible, these are measures that distance the Canary Islands from world tourist destinations and the Canary Islanders from the continent. Airlines seek to save operating costs and will not hesitate to eliminate routes with the archipelago as long as the conditions in current fiscal policies are maintained," said the Minister, who has called for "an exercise of deep reflection" because "we cannot continue to put obstacles to the sector that should lead the economic recovery of the archipelago."
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[The airport moves its closing time forward by one hour from November->72844]
