The dream of transforming the Canary Islands, and specifically the Maspalomas area, into an international hub of technical and commercial importance clashes head-on with the rigidity of the State's Air Transport Agreements (ATA). The Government's response to a written question in the Senate has dampened expectations of using the so-called "fifth freedoms of the air" to attract flights connecting, for example, the Americas with Africa or Asia, with stopovers in the islands.
The Canary Islands have revived their long-standing demand for the airports of Tenerife South and Gran Canaria to become international logistics hubs for cargo loading and unloading. To achieve this, the Canary Coalition (CC) and the Aena Union are calling on the government to authorize foreign airlines to exercise the so-called fifth freedom: the right or privilege, with respect to scheduled international air services, granted by one state to another to disembark or embark, in the territory of the former, passengers originating from or destined for a third state.
For the central government, these freedoms are an exclusive right of states, not of individual airports. Currently, Spain has granted fifth freedom rights to airlines such as Air China and Emirates, but these are limited to very specific routes like Madrid-São Paulo and Barcelona-Dubai. The Ministry of Transport applies a discretionary and centralized policy: it studies each application based on specific projects that benefit "all of Spain," not specific regions.
The most revealing fact for the Maspalomas tourism sector is that the Government "has no record" of any foreign company having expressed interest in using the Canary Islands as a stopover point under this arrangement. The responsibility lies with the foreign airlines, which must request these rights through their aeronautical authorities based on their own commercial interests. "Aena has no authority to negotiate any agreement of this type on behalf of the Spanish State," the ministerial response emphasizes, limiting the role of local airport authorities to infrastructure management, not international commercial strategy.
While the tourism sector in Maspalomas seeks to diversify markets and reduce dependence on traditional tour operators, the air freedom policy continues to be designed from Madrid, prioritizing the major peninsular hubs and leaving the islands in a secondary role in the reconfiguration of intercontinental routes.
