The Canary Islands has lost a total of 2,901 direct air seats with Ukraine and Russia in March due to the war and the closure of airspace to Russian airlines.
Specifically, until a week ago, 624 air seats were planned from Russia to the Canary Islands and 2,277 with Ukraine, as reported to Efe this Monday by the Government of the Canary Islands, which has detailed that these data refer to seats on direct regular flights, such as those offered so far by the Russian airline Aeroflot to Tenerife.
This winter season, which runs from November 2021 to March 2022, had 3,943 air seats scheduled on direct regular flights with Russia, 86.7% less than before the pandemic, and 13,504 with Ukraine, when in 2019/2020 there were none.
The Ministry of Tourism of the Canary Islands Executive has specified that the decrease in seats with Russia is due to the restrictive mobility measures as a result of the pandemic.
Regarding the summer season, a total of 23,675 direct air seats are planned from Ukraine, 10,571 more than in the summer of 2019, and with Russia, 4,836 seats, 68,524 less, which are up in the air pending how the events unfold.
In 2019, before the pandemic, 89,098 Russian tourists and 12,269 Ukrainians arrived in the islands, a figure that fell in 2020 to 29 Ukrainians and 11,0006 Russians and that in 2021 began to rebound to 4,879 Ukrainians and 2,548 Russians.
The Russian tourist, who is one of the biggest spenders at the destination, spends an average of 1,743 euros, including the stay, with an average daily investment of 154 euros and an average stay of 13 days, according to the same sources, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Tourism for the year 2019.
25% of Russians stay in four-star hotels and 49% only book accommodation, so the spending in supermarkets and restaurants they make is higher than that of other travelers.
Tenerife is, by far, the most visited island by Russians, with 60,472 travelers in 2019, a figure that represents 82.6% of the total number of tourists of this nationality in the Canary Islands.
The majority of travelers of Russian nationality choose the Canary Islands for its good weather and safety with the aim of resting and organize their vacations more than 3 months in advance.
Also, 49% of Russian tourists are repeaters, 90% have higher education, 38% earn less than 25,000 euros net per year in the household, are 41 years old on average and 33% travel as a couple.
