The PP and the PSOE have become involved in an electoral controversy on account of a canceled flight to the Canary Islands of the popular president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who announced yesterday Sunday that he had had to call off his rally in Santa Cruz de Tenerife at the last minute, which he had to attend at half past eight in the evening, as he could not fly. In a message on Twitter, Feijóo apologized, stating that the regular flight that was to take him from Valencia to Tenerife had been cancelled, to later add a tagline against the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez: “Not going on Falcon has these things.” It is not a new accusation. At his rallies, the popular leader often reproaches Sánchez for using the presidential plane to attend campaign events.
The controversy broke out on social networks when several users verified that no flight from the Valencian Manises airport had been canceled yesterday. There were two scheduled flights to Tenerife, one from Ryanair and one from Vueling, and both took off without any problems. Information that Aena has confirmed to La Vanguardia: “All the flights scheduled in Valencia yesterday were made without incident, no cancellation was made during the day,” state sources from the public company.
The reaction of the PSOE has not been long in coming. Party sources have accused Feijóo of lying and using “a ghost flight (…) to attack the Prime Minister with one of his usual mantras.” “To honor a clean and transparent campaign, Mr. Feijóo should explain why he is referring to a ghost flight that no one has been able to locate, providing the necessary evidence to show that his flight to Tenerife was canceled yesterday and that is why he could not get to the rally”, they say from the PSOE.
In reality, the flight that Feijóo was supposed to take, the VLC-TFN FR630, from the low-cost company Ryanair, was descheduled three weeks ago by the airline, the company has assured this newspaper. Everything seems to indicate that the team of the president of the PP did not discover it until he showed up at the Manises airport. In a message distributed to the media, from the PP it is attributed to an error by the travel agency with which they work.
Popular sources have explained that the flight was purchased on April 20. It had to leave Valencia at 5:55 p.m. with the doors closing at 5:25 p.m. Feijóo showed up at the airport an hour before the scheduled departure time and it was there, “with the boarding passes already issued”, where he was informed of the cancellation. It was then that he made his tweet and also published a video saying that he had been “struck” in Valencia and apologizing to the people who had planned to attend the rally that afternoon in the castle of San Juan de Tenerife.
“After several inquiries, it was proven that the airline informed by email (to the account provided by the travel agency that manages the party’s travel) of the cancellation of the flight. However, there was no communication of said circumstance from the party itself. travel agency to the Popular Party”, say PP sources. Contacted by La Vanguardia, Ryanair has confirmed that the airline canceled the flight on April 28 (that is, eight days after the PP’s travel agency bought the ticket) and that same day it communicated it to the affected passengers.
After the mishap, Feijóo was finally able to fly later to the Canary Islands, on a regular flight that left Valencia at 7:50 p.m. This noon he has a rally in Las Palmas together with the popular candidate for the presidency of the Canary Islands, Manuel DomÃnguez, and the candidate for mayor of Las Palmas Jimena Delgado.
“Each and every one of the president’s trips in this campaign have been made in a Popular Party vehicle, on trains or on regular flights. Any information about ticket schedules and others is available to the media (… .) We demand that the PSOE report the means of transport used by its general secretary to attend his electoral acts”, launch PP sources.