The counselor of Public Works, Housing and Mobility of the Government of the Canary Islands, Pablo Rodríguez, has claimed this Tuesday the need to promote intermodal transport in the archipelago to strengthen its connectivity, something that, in his opinion, involves the "strategic" participation of the autonomous community in the management of its airports.
Rodríguez expressed this during the informative meeting of Europa Press "Canarias hacia el futuro," held at the Hotel Santa Catalina, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where he also addressed one of the most pressing challenges of the archipelago: access to housing, a problem of "significant magnitude," which is not "exclusive to any territory" and which in the Canary Islands presents its own "singularities."
"We need to improve connectivity and continue betting on it from an intermodal perspective, to turn the islands into a true unique highway, that connects the islands by land, sea, and air," and that we can move around the islands with much ease, more than we do now," the counselor pointed out, emphasizing the need to articulate a more integrated transport system.
He also indicated that this "hyperconnectivity" must be promoted under criteria of sustainability and digitalization, taking advantage of the evolution of the different modes of transport in the Canary Islands, with the increase in the number of passengers in air, maritime, and land services in the last twenty years and an "exponential growth" in the most recent years.
In this context, Rodríguez defended the importance of linking and coordinating all those modes of transport in the archipelago, placing as a "key" element the possibility of participating, for example, in the co-management of the Canary airports. "Now is the time to manage the airports. There is no more strategic infrastructure in the Canary Islands," he emphasized.
The counselor recalled that the airports of the archipelago are decisive for the main economic engine of the islands, tourism, and insisted on their "strategic" nature because they "connect Canarians and Canarians" and are infrastructures that "generate opportunities" for the citizens and the productive fabric.
"We defend a professional management, where we influence decisions. Nowadays, we do not influence them. In airports, absolutely strategic decisions are made, among them the multi-year state investment plan, and they tell us about them afterwards. What we need is to participate at the right moment in those decisions," stated Pablo Rodríguez, demanding effective decision-making capacity.
These statements come after it was learned that next Thursday a Joint Commission between the regional Executive and the central Government is scheduled to analyze a possible agreement that would allow the establishment of a bilateral airport body and open the door for the Canary Islands to intervene in decisions affecting their aerodromes.