Mazín accuses the Government of main Alicante to “tourist collapse” with out an growth of the airport like in Malaga | EUROtoday

The Minister of Transport, the socialist Scar Puente, and the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, the in style Carlos Mazn toasted with cava final December in a hanging picture. Not a lot due to the proximity of Christmas dates as due to the relevance of a political settlement that will enable the growth of the Port of Valencia to be unblocked after months of blockages and delays. The reward that Mazán himself gave to Puente then, nonetheless, has ended up resulting in harsh reproaches. This time, with a watch on Alicantethe province from which Mazán exactly originates.

The Valencian president raised his tone this Thursday to reproach the Government of Pedro Sánchez for taking Alicante to “tourist collapse”. And it’s because the central Executive has acknowledged in a written response that the growth of the Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airportwhich final yr broke a file for passengers with 15.7 million.

The demand of the Valencian Government, due to this fact, is a second runway for the airport which, nonetheless, Moncloa rejects: “The studies carried out indicate that in the short/medium term it is not necessary to have a second runway.” This is the forceful response given in writing by the Secretary of State for Relations with the Cortes to the PP senator for Alicante, Agustín Almodbarwho had requested concerning the forecasts of the airport's grasp plan for “programmed growth with its necessary expansion.”

The official response, nonetheless, is a bucket of chilly water, because the Government considers that the actions proposed within the grasp plan “are not subject to a specific time horizon, but rather to reaching the traffic volumes that require them.” . Volumes, due to this fact, that within the opinion of the Government are nonetheless removed from being achieved. And this even supposing The forecasts for this yr even purpose to exceed the determine of 16 million passengersto the extent that progress in these first months of 2024 is already round 24% in comparison with 2023.

According to the Government, the Alicante airport “currently has infrastructure with sufficient capacity.” Now, this assertion has unraveled the battle ax within the Generalitat. The Valencian president has criticized that Moncloa “is not even considering the study for the second runway of this airport.” “It plays with the economy, employment and the projection of the Valencian Community”Mazn lamented.

For the Valencian president, who already denounced the “discrimination” of Alicante within the General State Budgets, he returns to the fray to reproach the “new disregard from the central executive”. Just exactly when “we are increasing our capacity to attract national and international tourists.”

Mazn guarantees a struggle in opposition to what he calls rudeness: “We are going to put a project on the table because the data supports us and because the second track is key to continue growing.” And that is the place he factors the accusing finger at what is taken into account a comparative grievance.

Alicante is in contrast on this case with It's chilly, whose airport inaugurated a second runway in 2012 after exceeding 13 million passengers. In the case of the Alicante airport, nonetheless, it’s already at 16 million, so “it is clear that the second runway is a necessity, not urgent for tomorrow, but to be able to maintain its growth in the coming years.” years”, in the words of the Valencian Minister of Tourism, Nuria Montes.

Alicante is today the fifth airport in Spain in number of passengers, behind Madrid -there is already a project for its expansion-Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca y It's cold. According to the Consell, stopping its expansion means that it will not be able to compete on equal terms “with different autonomous areas.” In fact, Montes recalls that Mlaga “has been in a position to increase from 37 to 65 operations per hour and has already exceeded 20 million passengers.”

The expansion of the Alicante airport is not the only one that is actually requested by the Valencian Government of PP and Vox, which considers that that of the Valencian airport of Manises “is much more pressing as a result of it’s on the verge of its capability”. This is expressed by Tourism sources, who in any case admit that the demand is not a second runway but rather the expansion of the passenger terminal.

The Valencian airport, which can hardly grow more as it is very close to the town of Manises, has already reached the magic figure of 10 million passengers. It must be taken into account that after the expansion that came into service in 2012, it was established that the maximum capacity would be 10.5 million. Hence, the Consell opens a second airport in the province of Valencia.