The scenes of queues lasting several hours with hundreds of individuals waiting for a taxi—families accompanied by children and older adults, even in the early hours—occur almost daily, particularly when the arrival of multiple flights coincides at Tenerife South airport. The president of the Hotel and Non-Hotel Association of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Ashotel), Jorge Marichal, has once again expressed his “profound dissatisfaction” towards the “public officials responsible for addressing this issue, which is not new,” as “it has been ongoing for several years, affecting a clear group of victims: the public.”
Marichal stresses: “The unacceptable image we present to residents and holidaymakers who, after lengthy flights, are eager to reach their destinations, only to confront extensive waits for taxis, is regrettable.” He finds it “absurd and ineffective—something many citizens cannot comprehend”: that “vehicles arriving at the departure terminal to drop off passengers must leave without clients due to the lack of a municipal license from Granadilla de Abona.” This, he laments, is despite the pressing need to fulfil that service.
As we approach the end of 2023, Ashotel has urged the Cabildo of Tenerife to officially declare the Tenerife South airport a sensitive area, as it ranks seventh in passenger traffic within the AENA national network. This declaration would facilitate an immediate resolution to the persistent queue problem, especially during peak seasons.
Ashotel has suggested that if there is no capacity to implement an effective system to alleviate this crisis, at the very least, they should adopt a system similar to that which operates at other significant airports, such as Madrid Barajas, where taxis from 54 municipalities within the Community of Madrid (including the capital) can provide services at this airport as part of a collaborative service area.
In an article from a year ago, Marichal argued that taxi license restrictions should not apply to this infrastructure and that if a vehicle not registered in Granadilla wishes to provide a transport service from the airport to another location on the Island, it should be permitted to do so without the need for any specific reservation for taxis in the municipality housing Tenerife Sur, as if it were a special privilege. “This infrastructure is funded by taxes from all Spaniards, not just those living in Granadilla,” he remarked.
The circumstance that taxis not registered in Granadilla can only drop off passengers at the airport and must return empty “contradicts the principles that Europe advocates for the decarbonisation of the transport sector,” the president of Ashotel concludes.
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