The tourism sector of Lanzarote has received encouraging news this Thursday from the British tourism market, the most important by volume on the island of volcanoes. Several airlines have announced that they will maintain, in some cases, and in others, incorporate new routes between the United Kingdom and Lanzarote.
The president of Asolan, the Lanzarote tourism association, Susana Pérez, has participated this week in London - together with the tourism authorities of the island and the Canary Islands and agents from the sector - in several meetings with senior executives of the main tour operators and airlines of the United Kingdom to learn about the new plans for the upcoming summer and winter tourist seasons of 2009/2010.
Thus, it has been confirmed that Jet2.com and Monarch will increase connections and places from several English cities with Lanzarote. These new routes are already listed on the respective websites of these airlines. Jet2.com has scheduled direct trips to this island of volcanoes from the cities of Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle.
Meanwhile, Monarch reinforces the routes of Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and London Luton. According to a study prepared by ASOLAN on the behavior and volume of airlines with Lanzarote, Monarch Airlines transported a total of 271,419 passengers during 2008 and Jet2.com, 90,055 occupied seats, according to official AENA figures.
As is known, about 50 percent of the total tourists received by Lanzarote during the past year 2008, around 800,000 people, came from the United Kingdom and Ireland. The pound sterling-euro parity has led to an increase in the cost of air tickets to fly to the Canary Islands.
The president of ASOLAN, Susana Pérez, has confirmed in these meetings, where they have met with TUI executives, that both tour operators and airlines want to cover part of the market after the bankruptcies last year of XL and Futura that brought about 250,000 tourists to the island.
