The airlines have responded to the publication of La Voz de Lanzarote, where several testimonies and experiences of residents of the island who have reported problems to acquire flights to the peninsula making use of the Canarian residence bonus were collected. These difficulties arose when buying trips on dates of high demand, such as Easter or the May 1st bank holiday.
In the case of Air Europa and Vueling, two of the three airlines where these incidents have been recorded, sources from both companies have argued that it was "a computer error".
The Catalan company has assured that it is already resolved, while the Balearic company has assured that they are working to solve it, that "at no time has the company hidden access to resident discounts" and invite users to try with other browsers if the purchase system gives them an error or to contact the company by telephone. Meanwhile, Iberia has argued that there is no problem on its website to acquire them. In contrast, Ryanair has not responded to this news outlet.
This situation occurred after last March the president of the Association of Airlines (ALA), Javier Gándara, threatened to reduce routes or frequencies with the subsidized regions, after denouncing the alleged delays in the payment of compensation for residents. Thus, he assured that they had not yet collected 175 million euros of transport subsidies for the year 2024 and estimated 1.25 billion for 2025.