The main tourist airports in the Canary Islands –Gran Canaria, the two in Tenerife, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura– received in the last month of last year to 3.71 million passengers, 80.7% of those who arrived in the same month of 2019, at the gates of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. In all of last year, however, only half (50.6%) of the users were reached than in the year before the health crisis.
Throughout the twelve months of 2019, they landed and took off 21.8 million passengers in the aforementioned island aerodromes, according to the report made public yesterday by the Airports International Association (ACI). That figure contrasts with the 43.1 million registered in 2019.
However, the numbers leave ample room for hope, given what happened in the last quarter. Between October, November and December, only 15.3% were missing in the Archipelago of the passengers lost due to the pandemic; 1.6 million in absolute values.
The sixth wave and the consequent increase in restrictions prevented a more intense improvement. Spain included the United Kingdom –now outside the European Union– among the countries whose citizens were obliged to submit diagnostic tests regardless of your age. The decision truncated quite a few reservations from British families who had designed a Christmas vacation under the Canarian sun, as repeatedly denounced the accommodation employers of the Islands.
Another conclusion drawn by the report is the survival in the issuing markets of the desire to travel to the Archipelago. All five aerodromes rise in the European ranking. If before the world health problem was declared there was no Canarian airport among the top thirty in Europe by volume of passengers, in December Gran Canaria appears in position 26 – it was in 38 in the same month of 2019 – and Tenerife Sur remains in 34, after gaining eleven places compared to two years ago.
Gran Canaria manages to sneak into the 30 aerodromes in Europe with the highest volume of travelers
For the Minister of Tourism of Gran Canaria, Carlos Alamo, The data shows that the Island is “well positioned for recovery.” It is true that the pulse has recovered intensely every time the contagion has given a break, so it is to be expected that the improvement will consolidate quickly and the accommodation business can return to the billing levels that it presented before have to stop completely. What is the only thing that could prevent it? “New restrictions,” says Álamo, that must be adopted in the event of a regrowth.
Fuerteventura was the airport that benefited most from the improvement of the last quarter. It only needed to add 7.2% to the 1.3 million passengers it received to reach values identical to those harvested between October and December 2019. Lanzarote followed suit, with 1.5 million passengers, 12, 7% less than two years before. Gran Canaria (2.9 million and 16.7% less), Tenerife South (2.4 and -16.9%) and Tenerife North (1.1 million and -19.8%) were next to the two easternmost airports.
The islands most exposed to the British market were the ones that most felt the cooling of the recovery in the last month of 2021. Tenerife Sur fell to 23.1% of the total for December 2019, with a total of 706,407 registered passengers. Lanzarote (461,780 users) was 19.5% away from closing the bracket and Gran Canaria (989,150), 18.9%.
The one that suffered the least from the return to harsh restrictions in the last month of the year was Fuerteventura (-13.1%), which received 388,475 passengers. Tenerife North, more distant from international traffic, registered 397,518 users, 18.3% less than the last month of 2019.
