Three more airports in the Canary Islands, Tenerife South, Tenerife North, and Gran Canaria, look likely to be affected by the Ministry of Transport’s plan to outsource control tower operations, at the suggestion of AENA, along with four other airports in Spain which include Palma de Mallorca, Malaga, Bilbao, and Santiago. It is the biggest step in the privatisation of these air services since 2010 when the process began.
The timing of this announcement is not very popular taking into account that air traffic controllers at privatised control towers are currently striking every Monday in February over pay and working conditions; however, the Ministry of Transport is drafting a ministerial order to improve the competitiveness of air transport in Spain and contribute to lower air ticket prices.
The outsourcing would affect the towers in Spain with the most air traffic, with the exception of Barajas in Madrid and El Prat in Barcelona, which are excluded from this proposal. The government claims that the experience to date of the service provided by private providers has been "significantly positive" in terms of quality and economic efficiency.
However, Tenerife’s and Gran Canarias’s air traffic controllers warn that this step will be detrimental to the islands. "It means replicating the 'low cost' policy as is already happening in other areas," a spokesperson for the group said.
If the initiative goes ahead, the current controllers will be replaced by new staff, with little previous experience, while the current workers will be assigned to other non-privatised control centres in Spain.
