Fresh calls for regional control of ports and airports

PALMA
THE Balearic government was yesterday urged by the Majorcan Chamber of Commerce to step up efforts to secure regional control of ports and airports.
The Balearics's new Socialist senator Pere sampol is the man now tasked with pushing ahead the region's demands for powers to manage the ports and airports and yesterday the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Joan Gual, stressed the need for an end to the state monopoly which still exists in Spain and is primarily enjoyed by Spanish airport and air traffic control authority AENA.

Gual, who had a meeting recently with Sampol, said that the Senator's primary concern should be that, in accordance with the Constitution, the Balearics is treated equally as other regions of Spain and called for the immediate decentralisation of Balearic airport and port management.

The ports of Alcudia and Formentera, for example, continue to be managed by the state and Gual maintains that unless all Balearic ports are regionally managed, the nautical industry in general will not be able to compete against emerging and growing destinations such as the Eastern Mediterranean and, to a lesser, extent, parts of the mainland. “It is the Balearics's right to manages its own ports and airports,” he stated.