Canary Islands air traffic controllers warn of safety corners being cut

Four airports in the Canary Islands are facing problems ahead of the peak season. The reason: a shortage of air traffic controllers. The privatised control towers are unable to recruit enough staff. There have been repeated strikes in recent years.

Last year, flight operations on El Hierro had to be scaled back in the middle of the peak season after it emerged that there were not enough staff working in ground control and air traffic control. Aena, the Spanish airport operator, imposed sanctions on the private company Saerco. Apparently, little has changed.

As well as El Hierro, the airports on La Palma, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura are also affected. They were all privatised years ago. Since then, there have been regular threats of strike action. Staff report excessively long shifts and fatigue, which in this line of work is considered potentially life-threatening for travellers.

Air traffic control towers in the Canary Islands are short-staffed

The Unión Sindical de Controladores Aéreos represents a large proportion of air traffic controllers in Spain. Trade union representative Susana Romero says that air traffic is significantly higher than the forecasts, which had predicted a decline in flights to the Canary Islands. And indeed, the Canary Islands recently recorded a rise of just over three per cent in flight connections, even before the peak winter tourist season. One of the reasons for this is shorter holidays in the Canary Islands, which therefore require more flights (more on this below).

According to the USCA, there were significantly more staff in the control towers in the Canary Islands prior to privatisation. Romero reports that the number of air traffic controllers on Lanzarote was reduced from 17 to 12. On Fuerteventura, ten out of 15 air traffic controllers remained, and on La Palma, eight out of the previous ten. For the trade union representative, this amounts to cost-cutting ‚at the expense of safety‘.

During the peak season, it is virtually impossible to increase staffing levels at short notice. This process takes time, and so the trade union is already painting a picture of staff shortages at the control centres when the majority of holidaymakers arrive in the Canary Islands this winter.

Air traffic controllers in the Canary Islands are on strike without actually striking

The trade union had recently called for strikes. The Spanish government subsequently ordered a minimum staffing level of 100 per cent during the strikes. In other words: not a single chair remained empty for even a minute. Officially, therefore, the Canary Islands‘ air traffic controllers were on strike, whilst they sat at their desks in front of their monitors, working as usual.

For the trade union, this is the reason why nothing is changing for the benefit of employees – and therefore in terms of safety – at the two private companies operating in the archipelago. Only Tenerife and Gran Canaria are currently unaffected by this: the two most important control towers in the Canary Islands‘ aviation sector are, at least for the time being, still in public hands.