They do this so that the people of Gran Canaria believe that Aena's regional headquarters are in Tenerife, when in fact, if anything, they would be in Las Palmas, where the Government Delegation and Enaire are located. They're so brave in Las Palmas against the south of Gran Canaria, but when people from Madrid come to everyone else, they back down. The gap between Aena's centralized management and the sense of grievance in Gran Canaria widened this Thursday after the performance by the agency's vice president, Javier Marín. What better way to present this information to the compliant press in Tenerife than to answer three or four questions in Las Palmas?
In a move interpreted locally as a clear choice of sides and a center of power, Marín has chosen Los Rodeos Airport as his base of operations to present the controversial Airport Regulation Document (DORA III). From there, he dismissed the criticism coming from the archipelago, calling it "a thing of the past" and arguing that a fee increase of just a few cents does not compromise the islands' competitiveness.
For Gando Airport, the main revenue generator for the Canary Islands network, Aena is not proposing a dramatic expansion of the terminal in terms of square meters, but rather a structural and technological modernization to maximize its current capacity. A redistribution of passenger flows is planned to streamline security and the boarding area, aiming to reduce waiting times without the need for new buildings.
A large portion of the budget is allocated to resurfacing and improving taxiways, essential for maintaining the operational capacity of an airport that handles constant heavy traffic. Investment is also being made in smart port systems, automated baggage handling (ABT), and the continuation of the photovoltaic project to make the airport energy self-sufficient.
According to Aena's second-in-command, attributing the loss of routes to a "40-cent" tariff increase lacks economic logic. The vice president countered by pointing the finger at low-cost carriers, reminding them that while Aena's fees have remained frozen for a decade, tickets have risen by an average of 15 to 20 euros. "Why are they going up?" Marín asked, shifting the focus to fuel costs and fleet renewal, and downplaying the impact of the airport fee on the final price.
What has stung the most in the south of Gran Canaria has been Marín's explicit praise of the collaboration with the Tenerife Island Council on the expansion projects for its two airports, a show of goodwill that contrasts sharply with the coldness displayed towards the Canary Islands Government's request to share in the management of the airports. Marín has slammed that door shut: management is "the shareholders' decision," making it clear that each stakeholder must understand their "role" and that Aena's accounts cannot be "divided into pieces." The message is clear: the network model is non-negotiable, and the Canary Islands must accept the current mechanisms for "dialogue."
The day's events at Los Rodeos Airport have thus left a landscape of entrenched positions. While Aena is relying on the success of its post-pandemic recovery figures (+17% compared to 2019) to justify its pricing policy as a "legal obligation" overseen by the CNMC (National Markets and Competition Commission), in Gran Canaria the feeling is that the state-owned entity is not only imposing the cost, but also choosing the venue to minimize debate on management autonomy. With the convening of an airport coordination committee in the coming days, the standoff between the Ministry of Transport and the Canary Islands' economic stakeholders is expected to reach its peak before the final approval of the DORA (Airport Regulation Document).
