SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 6 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The US airline United Airlines will offer a total of 13,400 seats on its direct flight between New York and Tenerife in the next four months. The route will begin to operate again on June 9 and will continue until September 27, as reported by the Cabildo de Tenerife on Tuesday.
The connection will link three times a week in each direction the Newark Libertad International airport with the Tenerife South airport. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays it will depart from the US and on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from the island. The duration of the flight will be six hours and fifty minutes and will be carried out using a B757-200 aircraft, with 169 seats (16 polaris and 153 economy class).
The acting president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, has highlighted “the consolidation of this connection after the excellent occupancy records last year, close to 90 percent”, and announced that if the good occupancy data is repeated this year , it is expected that in 2024 the flight will have an annual schedule.
In this sense, he also advanced that a new direct flight originating in North America could be confirmed in the coming weeks, specifically from the east coast of Canada, for which Turismo de Tenerife has been working in recent months. In addition, at the end of the year the island will participate, hand in hand with Turespaña, in the fairs in Korea and India, while progress continues in the Middle East.
Last year a total of 26,507 North American travelers arrived on the island, 55% more than in 2019, before the pandemic. Some figures in which the direct flight operated in the months of June to September by United Airlines has had to do, in large part. Likewise, the rate of growth is also maintained so far in 2023, as a total of 11,138 travelers from the United States have arrived in Tenerife in the first four months of the year.
In the case of Canada, a total of 2,307 travelers accumulate between January and April, almost 75 percent more. In both cases they have arrived through connecting flights from the cities of Madrid, London, Lisbon or Casablanca, with which airlines operate that connect them, in turn, with different points of origin in North America.
Within this trend of consolidation in this market, Tenerife is already included in the range of destinations offered by the different brands of the North American tour operator Apple Leisure Group Vacations, such as Apple Vacations, Funjet Vacations, Travel Impressions or United Vacations, which are marketed directly to through travel agencies in the United States. The island is also offered as a destination to end customers of BeachBound, a tour operator also part of Apple Leisure Group Vacations.
ACTIONS IN THE US AND CANADA
In recent years, Tenerife has strengthened its presence in the United States and Canada through numerous promotional actions to publicize the destination. The island has joined the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA), which brings together the top executives of US tour operators; and it has joined the Virtuoso travel agency network, which allows it to give visibility to the attractions of the destination among its more than 21,000 agents, not only in North America but also from other continents.
Tenerife has also become an affiliate member of the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA), one of the largest travel trade associations in the world; and is also a member of Signature Travel Work, which represents more than 15,000 travel consultants in the United States and Canada.
The promotional actions carried out by Turismo de Tenerife in the United States and Canada are completed with campaigns with tour operators such as Avanti Destinations or with United Airlines itself. Also with initiatives such as a visit by 14 North American travel agents to the island starting June 10 with the tour operator ALG Vacations.
