The canaries, without wings
CASIMIRO CURBELO
Over the last few years, as a result of what I call “good policy”, the Canary Islands have achieved important things in the field of connectivity. Through dialogue and negotiation, we have achieved recognition by the State of measures designed to compensate for the remoteness and territorial discontinuity of our region.
As we have repeated a thousand and one times, it is not about privileges but about equality: trying to compensate for the enormous distance from the continent that more than two million two hundred thousand citizens face in their daily lives who bear the extra costs of insularity in all aspects of the economy.
Right now we are celebrating a measure of justice: free bus service for regular travelers, something that will have a positive impact on the economies of many workers on the two large islands, where thousands of daily trips are made to the capital's large work areas. It is a positive measure, as was the establishment of a subsidy for air transport users in the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, which is currently set at 75% of the ticket price.
However, since that subsidy was granted and its subsequent percentage increases, ticket prices have not stopped rising. Every day it is more expensive for Canarian residents to travel to the rest of Spain. And every day it becomes more impossible for a citizen or a non-resident family to be able to afford a trip to the Canary Islands.
An air communications model where the State provides a 75% subsidy is not a free market model. However, as if apparently it were, travel prices skyrocket on the dates when there is the greatest demand for transportation, such as the Christmas or summer holidays or carnivals or Easter. And the canaries have no alternatives to move because the market is controlled by very few hands.
But what are enormously expensive prices for Canarian residents become prohibitive for those who are not. There are islanders who live on the Peninsula and who have lost their Canarian residence who are condemned to not be able to fly to the islands, like the rest of their fellow Spanish citizens. A ticket purchased within a month can cost a Canary Islander 150 euros each way, which means that for a non-resident the cost would be 600 euros. Who can spend 1,200 euros on a round trip to the islands? Who can pay that price for four people in a family?
The boat trip from Cádiz to Tenerife, for example, costs almost 60 euros for a resident, which puts the ticket at almost 250 euros for a non-resident. The same happens with the boat to La Gomera, which for a non-resident costs almost 90 euros or 160 euros if it is by plane. With these prices we are creating an ever-growing abyss that separates us from the rest of the citizens of our country for whom we are a prohibitive destination. And that is something that we have the imperative duty to resolve as soon as possible. Because it is a mistake from an economic point of view. But it also represents a social error with incalculable consequences for the future. It separates us from the rest of the Spaniards and generates in many of them a feeling of grievance when they feel treated in such a burdensome way.
The protests in the Canary Islands have not been of much use. The Government of Spain commissioned a series of studies to verify whether the price of air tickets had risen disproportionately after the establishment of the different subsidies. The conclusions corroborated what we Canaries already knew: they had risen. But from then until today, things have remained the same. Tickets are becoming more expensive and travelers are becoming increasingly poorer, because they have no alternative.
Christmas is approaching again and once again we will witness the abuse of a captive market. And it is time for the Canary Islands to raise with the Government of Spain the need to establish limits and conditions for air operators who are receiving public money from all Spaniards to support an essential public service for the Canary Islands. The solutions range from the consideration of air connections as a Public Service Obligation, negotiated with the authorities of the European Union, to the promotion of the establishment of new operators, for which the granting of the Fifth Air Freedom to the Islands would be a fundamental milestone. Be that as it may, we have to do something to prevent the rest of Spain from continuing to move away from the Canary Islands and the wingless canaries from being victims of absolutely abusive prices.
