The Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands and the airline Binter have agreed to launch a new expansion of routes and frequencies from this Wednesday to meet the growing demand for places for people who must travel between islands to attend to their work commitments, mainly, with the entry of the archipelago into Phase 2 of the de-escalation.
In this way, and as of this Wednesday, the 32 daily frequencies that operate until this Tuesday between islands will increase to 40 daily round trips.
This consensual decision between administration and company seeks to respond to the growing demand for the number of passengers who need to travel between islands for the essential reasons included in RD 463/2020 (labor, return, health) once the archipelago has entered Phase 2 of the de-escalation, just as it did two weeks ago when entering phase 1.
As a result of this coordinated work, two extensions of routes have already been agreed during the de-escalation, a first increase of 12 frequencies on May 13 to which another eight will be added from tomorrow.
Therefore, within 15 days, the frequencies between islands have gone from the 20 daily frequencies decreed during the first weeks of the state of alarm to the 40 that will be operational from tomorrow.
These new air seats are already available in the company's usual marketing channels, the Ministry of Transport points out in a note.
In addition, together with the additional frequencies that are incorporated into the current routes, the direct connection between the airports of Fuerteventura and Tenerife North is recovered, which will have two flights (one outbound and one return) per day.
Likewise, frequencies will be increased on routes that are already operational and that are considered basic, such as Tenerife Norte-El Hierro, Tenerife Norte-Gran Canaria and Tenerife Norte-La Palma.
In total, and as of Wednesday, there will be five daily roundtrip flights between Tenerife North and Gran Canaria; four on the Gran Canaria-Lanzarote route; three on Gran Canaria-Fuerteventura; two on Tenerife Norte-El Hierro and one between Tenerife Norte, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
Binter has reiterated to the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Housing that all the health, hygiene and disinfection recommendations for aircraft collected by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have been adopted, in addition to following the protocols determined by the various royal decrees and ministerial orders issued during the health crisis to guarantee the safety of travelers.
Travel with justification
Therefore, the Government of the Canary Islands has considered it appropriate to eliminate the current limitation to 50% of the capacity of flights.
Among the recommendations that have already been adopted on flights between islands is the obligation to wear a mask from the moment you access the departure terminal, to carry the boarding pass printed from home or on your mobile, not to serve food or drinks during the flight, reinforce cleaning on airplanes and terminals, carry out boarding and disembarkation in a staggered manner and leaving a meter and a half between people.
In addition, the Canary Islands Government will continue to take the temperature of passengers when boarding at airports.
Despite the request to lift the restrictions on the capacity of flights, and while Phase 2 of the de-escalation remains in force, all inter-island flights will continue to operate under the same conditions established by current regulations, that is, only passengers who justify the unavoidable reasons for traveling included in Royal Decree 463/2020 (health reasons, medical reasons, travel to the workplace, return to the place of habitual residence) will be able to fly.
