SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The airlines plan to operate with the Canary Islands, in a standard week next November, a total of 2,422 flights, which means 189 more connections than in 2022, when 2,233 weekly connections were made to the archipelago, according to 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.
This was reported by the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce of the Canary Islands Government, which, through Turismo de Canarias, has been able to verify in the ITB Berlin that the archipelago will maintain its tourist demand at even higher levels next winter season. Thus, if the data is compared with 2019, in November there are 577 more arrival operations on the islands than in the same month of the pre-pandemic period, almost 24% more.
However, the director responsible for the Area, Yaiza Castilla, has warned that when comparing with 2019 the effect of the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook must be taken into account, which had an offer of 800,000 places a year and that left a “clear gap” in connectivity with the Canary Islands at the beginning of the winter season of that year. In addition, in said exercise the effects of the disappearance in February of the Germania company, which operated with the islands with some 400,000 seats, were also noted.
Yaiza Castilla has qualified that although the air schedule already known for the winter must be taken 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 They give an idea of the high confidence that there is in the Canary Islands in the tourism market”, highlighted the counselor.
“This confidence in the destination causes the airlines to reinforce their commitment to the islands in a few months in which, in addition, we continue to be leaders not only because of our well-known natural and climatic attributes, but also because importance continues to be given to choosing a destination issues such as security, trust and European service standards,” added Castilla.
Likewise, he explained 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 those of medium distance (4 or 5 hours by plane) that generate less carbon footprint.
OUTPUT 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 recorded compared to 627 for the same standard week in November 2022 or 509 operations in 2019.
The second foreign issuing market is the Germans, with 425 connections with the islands per week, 11 more than last November and 101 more than in the same week of November 2019.
As for the third most important issuing market, the national one, regular air connectivity is also one of those with the highest 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 programming to 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 even 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 and that they come down from Germany.
