Airlines have planned a progressive incorporation of flights with the Canary Islands starting next week and will reach 950 weekly flights in the second half of the month --362 with the Peninsula and 588 with foreign countries-- with a minimum offer of 173,129 seats in the last week of the month, which means that the islands will have recovered 47% of the air capacity that existed in the same dates of the past year.
In a statement, the regional councillor of the area, Yaiza Castilla, according to data from the public company Promotur, has highlighted that, despite being half that in 2019, these are "good data", since it is taken for granted that from December access to the Canary Islands "will be more flexible in terms of health controls".
"We fully trust that we will be able to unify the health control criteria at the destination and that this will involve enabling tourists to access reliable and cheap diagnostic tests, so that this requirement is not an impediment to their travel decisions to the Canary Islands, as it is being this week with the obligation, by virtue of the decree of the Ministry of Health, to present a negative PCR test upon arrival at the airport," he said.
Castilla added that the requirement of this test is generating difficulties for travelers to access it due to the high cost and availability in the countries of origin. "However," he clarified, "the Canary Islands had contemplated the use of antigen tests, which are cheaper and more accessible, also in line with the recommendation of the European Commission in this regard."
Within the good forecasts for recovery of connectivity is also included the foreseeable lifting of lockdown measures that the Government of the United Kingdom will decree for its citizens from December 3, opening again the possibility of travel abroad from the country.
Here, although it has been advanced that upon return to England quarantine must be observed, it is taken for granted that the Canary Islands will remain outside of that requirement, given that it is still considered a safe zone given its low epidemiological index. "A consideration that reinforces the Canary Islands destination as the only winter destination to which you can travel," said the councillor.
Precisely, it has been the restrictive measures on the movements of its citizens by the main countries of origin that has meant that in the present month of November the programmed connectivity has been only 27% of what it was in the same month of the past year. November has thus had an average of 92,000 seats offered per week, compared to the 173,000 programmed for next month.
