Programme for regional airport control

STAFF REPORTER THE Balearic government is to propose that each airport on the Islands of Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza has its own independent management board. The measure is to form part of a larger document that will be presented to central government next January to address the problems surrounding airport congestion in the region. The issue was discussed yesterday between Mabel Cabrer, Balearic minister for Public Works, Housing and Transport; and Angel Llanos, minister for Institutional Affairs on the Canary Islands, who said he was in absolute agreement with the airport management model proposed by the Balearic government. Cabrer confirmed that the meeting with Llanos was for purposes of exchanging information which would prove useful to both regions, and that Llanos had been keen to hold further discussions on the airport management issue prior to a summit with central government. She added that it had become clear that Tenerife and the Balearics saw eye-to-eye on the matter but that it had taken two years on the part of the Balearic government to force central government to raise the question of airport modernisation to a national level. Other issues to be included in the paper to be presented to the government are to be the separation of airport management from that of air navegation management (which is to continue under State control); public ownership of airports; company management on competitive terms; airport costs and efficiency; and the creation of an airport advisory board. Cabrer highlighted the importance of the regionally created committee because it has a very high level of participation and input from unions, town councils, Island councils, civil and governmental associations, and other sectors. Llanos praised the model management programme which the Balearic government intends to spearhead for approval in Madrid, referring to it as “reasonable and efficient for Island communities”. He was anxious to see a decentralised form of airport management, unhampered by central government control.