The Canarian Airways airline, founded less than a year ago by a group of entrepreneurs from Tenerife and La Palma, has paralyzed its operations at least until Easter. The sixth wave and the irruption of the omicron variant demand for flights to the Archipelago has plummeted again, something that has forced the airline -which operates under the parent company Lattitude Hub- to leave its only plane on the ground and begin preparing to restart activity in April. For this reason, they have paralyzed the sale of tickets until the new routes have been defined.
The Airbus A319 with which the company operates has been at the Ciudad Real airport since last Tuesday, January 11, as confirmed by airline sources, where it has been transferred to carry out a “technical stop” to carry out maintenance work, taking advantage of the stoppage of flights. The forecast is that this work will take at least several weeks, although the company insists that it is maintenance work that must be carried out on all aircraft and that it was already planned to be carried out in the months of January and February. Unlike what happens in other airlines, which have a larger fleet of aircraft, paralyzing the activity of its only aircraft forces Canarian Airways to stop offering its services.
Company sources also point out that This technical stop will also be used to label the plane again after recovering the name Canarian Airways. After its presentation, the company decided to start operations as Lattitude Hub, because they had not yet completed the trademark registration process, which conflicted with a very similar trade name that was already registered with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office and the European Union Intellectual Property Office. Once resolved, as of November the company has returned to using its original name.
The airline was introduced in February last year. Backed by the capital of 14 businessmen from Tenerife and Palmeros, it wanted to have an investment of 700,000 euros from the Cabildo de Tenerife, which has not yet materialized. As announced, its intention was to fly to seven national and international destinations and start selling tickets that same month of March, despite the fact that at the time of the presentation, One Airways – the company that would act as the air operator of the new company – did not have the necessary air operator certificate (AOC) to fly the Airbus A319. A permit that he achieved months later.
This is not the first time that the company has decided to suspend its activity in its short history. A week after its inaugural flight, which landed in July of last year at the Tenerife Sur Airport from Madrid, the company decided to cancel its operations until autumn, when it was expected that the demand would take off due to the good tourist prospects for the winter season. Flights resumed last October with two routes connecting Tenerife South with Madrid and Bilbao. However, just a few months later, the arrival of the sixth wave has once again forced Canarian Airways to stop.
The airline, as announced in a statement this week, is adapting its demand to the situation caused by the pandemic. These days it is also participating in the International Tourism Fair (Fitur), which started yesterday in Madrid, trying to close the new operation and adapt “the plans established from the beginning to the current reality.”
To this end, Canarian Airways has increased its share capital and has hired the founder of Tubillete.com, Francisco Rodríguez, as general manager. A profile from which the airline hopes to take advantage of “its knowledge in everything related to connectivity and the sale of inventory at crucial moments.”
