THIRD RUNWAY AT LAS PALMAS 'UNJUSTIFIED', SAY GREENS

LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA, Wednesday January 27 2010

GREEN campaigners demanded that authorities justify plans for a third runway at Las Palmas airport on Wednesday.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

The regional group Ben Magec – Ecologistas en Acción cahallenged the Cabildo government of Gran Canaria, the regional Canarian government, the national government and Spanish civil aviation authority and airport operator AENA to produce figures to prove that airport was overloaded with traffic.

Ben Magec pointed out that AENA's figures for 2009 showed a 10.3 per cent drop in passengers using the airport – formerly known as Gando – from 2008's number of 10,212,106, and a 16.2 per cent drop in flights.

Freight traffic fell by 22.9 per cent over the same period, prompting the group to question plans for a new 2.5 million square metre industrial estate at the airport, which would require the diversion of the GC-1 motorway.

The ecologists also cited AENA's 2001 plan for the airport, which allowed for a six per cent annual increase in traffic.

The two existing two-mile parallel runways at Las Palmas are long enough for the airport to be considered an alternative landing site for the NASA space shuttle.

The campaign called for the drafting of a new master plan for the airport which would allow for future growth without the need for a third runway through better management of the existing facilities.

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