Menorca will maintain an obsolete control tower while Aena expands the airport
The claim to replace this infrastructure has been dragging on for more than two decades, while institutions, unions, and social entities question the island's growth model
PalmaMenorca is on track to break the historical record for air passenger arrivals this year. Up to August, it has already recorded 3,140,000, 2.5% more than last year, when it registered the highest influx to date, with 4,210,152 passengers. The airport then exceeded the 2018 number of users by 800,000, when Aena had the idea of launching a pioneering project in Menorca, together with Vigo, to control its air traffic virtually and remotely.
The idea of a new virtual control tower to regulate the Menorcan airport and 600,000 annual movements aroused from the first moment the distrust of the air traffic controllers' union (USCA), which warned of the risks and the error it entailed. The system's test period confirmed the “serious deficiencies” that Enaire, first, and Aena, later, ended up acknowledging.
After seven years and 3.7 million euros invested, the entity that manages the State's airports decided to indefinitely shelve the project upon verifying that the technology used had not yielded the expected result and that there was no other option but to rectify.
The oldest in the State
The current physical airport control tower, built in 1968 and the oldest in Spain, has continued to see its deterioration worsen, which has been insistently reported by unions. An increasing obsolescence that has motivated the unanimous claim from institutions (from the Parliament to the Council of Menorca) and from the entire political spectrum, but which has not met the expected response from the Ministry of Transport.
The Regulatory Document (DORA), which defines the investments planned for Menorca airport from now until 2031, does not provide for the construction of the new physical control tower that the island is requesting. But among the 170 million euros that Aena plans to invest in this period, there is the expansion of the aircraft parking area and of the walkways and boarding gates. The horizon set by the managing body is for the Menorcan airfield to receive nearly 4 and a half million passengers in five years' time, 200,000 more than now.
In the midst of the process to limit the entry of vehicles by sea to the island and to put a brake on the tourist and construction growth of recent years, Aena has approved a plan that contradicts the steps of the island's institutions and those demanded on the street by the people of Menorca in demonstrations called by platforms and social entities. Not only is there no plan to build a new control tower, but, furthermore, there is an intention to expand the airport to receive more visitors, who will aggravate the saturation and tourist overcrowding that Menorca is suffering, especially since the end of the pandemic.
The GOB believes it is a mistake to continue down the path of expanding infrastructure that brings more people to the island and demands that the 170 million committed be reused for the improvement of the residents' living conditions. This is also requested by the spokesperson for Més per Menorca, Josep Castells, who believes that “the problem is that Madrid has not yet realized that we do not want more tourists and that increasing the number of visitors is counterproductive for us”. “This is the drama we have, a State government totally disconnected from the reality of the Islands. The race towards infinite growth leads us to collapse and lower per capita income”.
The People's Party sees it as “an institutional lack of respect and absolute contempt for Menorca”. The senator and president of the Menorcan Populars, Cristòfol Marquès, focuses his criticism on the general secretary of the socialists on the island, the deputy Pepe Mercadal, whom he accuses of having “deceived” the Menorcans. This is all because the PP managed in March to have the Joint Congress-Senate Commission on Insularity agree, including the PSOE, to the construction of the new control tower that is now being ignored.
Mercadal does not refute that it is a fair demand, but he does reproach the PP, especially the president of the Island Council, Adolfo Vilafranca, for not having taken any effective step to request a meeting with the president of Aena, Maurici Lucena, to learn firsthand about his intentions and to convey the general opinion of the Menorcans regarding the planned actions at the airport.
CCOO recalls that there has been talk of the need for a new control tower since 1999, and that it was even included in the 2010 Master Plan. But the situation has not stopped worsening since then, especially in the last year. In addition to a cleaner's workplace accident, there have been air conditioning breakdowns, power cuts, and water ingress that affected the equipment and positions in the control tower. A situation that has generated “worry and insecurity among the professionals who work in the tower, controllers and maintenance technicians”, explains the union. “Working conditions are unacceptable”, denounces CCOO. “Silicone will not cover the leaks at the airport”, adds Sumar deputy Félix Alonso, who has addressed this problem in Congress.
Representatives of Comissions Obreres and the air traffic controllers (USCA) will appear together on October 1st to raise awareness about the serious situation of the control tower. The meeting between the presidents of Aena and the Menorcan Council may also help to rethink the infrastructure's priorities.