The airline Binter Canarias is exploring opportunities in the connections between the archipelago and the peninsula that Ryanair is going to abandon this winter in the pulse it maintains with Aena for the increase in airport taxes, according to a company spokesman to EFE.
In principle, the Canary Islands is one of the communities most affected by the decision of Ryanair, since 20% of the two million seats that it is going to remove (400,000) corresponds to the islands, where it will also stop operating at the Tenerife Norte airport.
Since it began to incorporate Embraer E195-E2 reactors into its fleet, Binter has undertaken an important deployment of routes from the Canary Islands to the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, whose latest major commitment has been Madrid-Barajas, with eight daily flights round trip (four from Gran Canaria and four from Tenerife Norte).
At the moment, Binter flies from the Canary Islands to A Coruña, Almería, Asturias, Badajoz, Córdoba, Granada, Jerez, Madrid, Menorca, Murcia, Palma, Pamplona, San Sebastián, Santander, Valencia, Valladolid, Vigo and Zaragoza, a list of airports that includes several of those most affected by the decision of the Irish low-cost airline.
"We are always analyzing the market and seeing opportunities. At all times we are vigilant of the evolution of the market and see if opportunities arise that may be interesting," said a Binter spokesperson, when asked about the new situation.
Despite its announcement that it is eliminating 400,000 seats in the Canary Islands, Ryanair is not abandoning the islands. In fact, it maintains the bulk of its business, with dozens of international connections from Gran Canaria, Tenerife Sur, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
Therefore, the analysis that the Government of the Canary Islands and the affected councils make is that their decision will have little impact on tourism, but it may affect the connectivity of residents in the islands, because the cut is concentrated on flights to the rest of Spain.
However, several companies are already moving to occupy the space left by Ryanair, such as Iberia Express, which announced this Thursday that it is increasing its offer on the Canary Islands-Peninsula routes by 30,000 seats for the winter season, half of them in Tenerife Norte (the airport that the Irish airline is leaving).
