Canary Islands report increased tourism demand for next winter, with 2,433 weekly flights

Published on March 09, 2023
Canary IslandsNews from Canary Islands
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Turismo de Canarias has been able to announce from ITB Berlin that the archipelago will maintain its tourist demand at even higher levels over the next winter season.

According to the regular air connectivity data scheduled for the season that runs from November 2023 to March 2024, managed by the Canary Islands Tourism Intelligence, Planning and Tourism Connectivity Service, in a typical week in November, airlines plan to operate 2,422 flights with the Canary Islands, that is, 189 more connections than in 2022, when 2,233 weekly connections were in place with the archipelago.

This increase in demand is even more striking when compared to 2019, since in November there are 577 more arrivals on the islands than in the same month of the pre-pandemic period, almost 24% more. However, the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands, Yaiza Castilla, warns that when comparing with 2019, the effect of the bankruptcy of the tourism giant Thomas Cook, which had an offer of 800,000 seats per month, must be taken into account, because it had left a clear gap in connectivity with the Canary Islands at the beginning of the winter season of that year. In addition, it should also be taken into account that in that same period in February the company Germania also disappeared, which operated with the islands around 400,000 seats.

Castilla qualifies that "although we must interpret the upcoming winter flight schedule with caution since it can vary given the uncertainties that persist at the socioeconomic level in Europe and in the world, it is evident that we are talking about very good figures that give an idea of the high confidence that there is of the Canary Islands in the tourist market”.

Castilla also explains that "in the European environment, sustainability is being given more and more weight and when it comes to betting on sun and beach destinations such as the Canary Islands, priority is given to medium distance destinations (4 or 5 hours by plane) that generate a smaller carbon footprint.

Source markets

By country, the United Kingdom not only remains the main issuing country for next winter, but also shows the greatest growth in its regular connectivity with the Canary Islands. Thus, in a standard week for the month of November, there are already 749 flights scheduled, compared to 627 for the same week in November 2022 or 509 operations in 2019.

The second foreign issuing market is Germany, with 425 connections with the islands per week, 11 more than last November and 101 more than in the same week of November 2019.

Finally, in regards to the third most important issuing market, the national one, regular air connectivity is also one of those with the greatest growth forecast for the winter, going from 557 flights a week in November 2022 to 672 for the same month of 2023. There are 115 more connections per week and 185 more than in the same typical week of November 2019. 

Meeting with TUI

The increase in air connectivity with the islands from Germany during the winter season is in line with what was reported this week in Berlin to the Minister of Tourism and her team by the top leaders of the tourism giant TUI.

Its executive director, Sebastian Ebel, assured during the meeting with Castilla that they will make a greater commitment to the islands in winter, with a forecast of transporting 1.4 million tourists in the 5 months of the high season for the Canary Islands, while for this summer they estimate a figure that is still lower than that of pre-covid summer times, with 1.3 million customers to the Canary Islands from April to October. By markets, for this summer he pointed out that they maintain their air capacity from the Netherlands and Poland, but there will be fewer flights coming from Germany to the Canary Islands.

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