He calls for a political agreement in Catalonia to address the capacity problem he believes there is at El Prat airport
June 27 () –
The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has announced that Renfe is preparing a complaint against Ouigo before the European Commission for going “against the railway liberalization process” that Adif and all operators agreed to in 2020.
In an interview on Onda Cero, the minister ruled out the possibility of avoiding filing this complaint, ensuring that the alleged unfair conduct of the French operator has occurred, which is why the Ministry wants the European Commission to rule on the matter.
Puente thus rules out Renfe going to the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), as it suggested a few months ago, to respond to what it considered “deeply unfair” practices, opting instead to go to Brussels.
The minister has already criticized Ouigo’s low prices on several occasions, selling tickets “well below cost from the beginning” and dragging Iryo and Renfe “to very bad results in corridors that were highly profitable.”
“Railway liberalization has brought positive things, it has obviously increased supply, it has reduced prices, but it has reduced them to a level that is unsustainable for the three competitors. The competition has to be fair and has to allow the three companies make profits or, at least, do not have losses,” the minister argued a few months ago, recalling Ouigo’s losses of close to 40 million euros per year.
EL PRAT AIRPORT
The minister has also referred to the “capacity problem” that he believes exists at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, pointing out that the future Government of the Generalitat will have to reach agreements with the rest of the political partners to carry out an expansion. , paralyzed for now.
Asked if it is possible to transfer the management of the airport to Catalonia so that the PSOE can convince ERC to allow the investiture of Salvador Illa, Puente stated that the legal framework does not allow it at this time, in addition to the fact that “management is not simple.” “.
“It does not have a management problem, it has a capacity problem, and it has a runway capacity problem, it is not even a terminal capacity problem that can be solved as we are going to do in Alicante or as we are going to do in Barajas; “It has a runway problem, because it has a runway that is not suitable for being an intercontinental hub, which is why it is a management problem,” he argued.
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