Spainair Increases flights to the Canary Islands

Between July and September Spainair is adding 10 direct routes from Mainland Spain to the Canary Islands. The summer schedule offers 67 domestic routes and over 47,000 flights in general with 27 routes open to the Canaries accounting for 7,000 flights. With it Star Alliance partners it also 20 International routes from Madrid and 19 from Barcelona making it the number one choice to Barcelona. Next summer, Spanair will operate 2 weekly flights from Madrid to Fuerteventura and 3 to South Tenerife. It will also increase from 2 to 4 its direct frequencies to Lanzarote, completing its service from Barcelona to the Canary Islands as it maintains its daily flights to Tenerife and Las Palmas. With this schedule, Spanair will be the only airline serving 5 direct destinations between Barcelona and the archipelago, and the only one flying as well to Fuerteventura and South Tenerife. The 50 weekly flights planned between the Catalan capital and the archipelago set Spanair as the best alternative in this market in flights and seats offered. From the 27th July and until 6th September Spanair will be offering 10 additional direct connections between the mainland and the Canary Islands: - From Seville to Las Palmas, South Tenerife, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. - From Santiago de Compostela to Las Palmas, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. - From Vigo to Las Palmas and South Tenerife. - From Bilbao to Fuerteventura.

Furthermore, Spanair operates code-shared flights from several Spanish cities to amongst other destinations, London, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Vienna, Warsaw, Geneva, Zurich, Oslo, and Philadelphia.

Monarch Report Strong Numbers for Canary Islands

Holiday and flight provider Monarch have reported promising visitor numbers for the Canary Islands this winter. Gran Canaria along with Tenerife and Lanzarote are all listed in the top five of their ‘Whats Hot for 2009’ List.

Liz Savage, the managing director of Monarch Flights and Holidays, commented: “Despite early indications that holidaymakers were looking to head east for their holidays this year, the picture to date is somewhat different. The Canary Islands which benefit from year-round sunshine and are only a four hour flight time from the UK, are the surprise destination leaders for both holiday and flight-only bookings this winter, already 13% ahead of holiday bookings vs 2008