The planes that have been flying over the sky of Lanzarote and the rest of the Canary Islands on the morning of this Friday have exceeded 1,170 kilometers per hour, pushed by strong southwest winds at altitude. This has been reported by the official account of Air Traffic Controllers on X.
The passage of storm Therese, the nineteenth of the season, has forced to activate several yellow warnings since this Wednesday in the archipelago and since this Thursday in the Canary Islands.
In the images shared by Air Traffic Controllers, who have indicated that planes reach "a dizzying speed", it can be seen how to the east of Lanzarote some aircraft have reached 621 knots, the equivalent of 1,150 kilometers per hour. This measure is usually used in aviation and nautical.
The tailwind exceeds in some cases 270 kilometers per hour, according to Air Traffic Controllers. This implies that flights from the Canary Islands to the European continent are taking less time than usual to arrive, while, on the contrary, flights made in reverse travel slower because they are facing the wind.
In this same publication, they have sent a reassuring message to passengers. Despite it being an "impressive figure," they have assured that this speed poses no risk, since it does not "dangerously" approach the speed of sound, nor does it cause structural damage to the aircraft.
"Simply we travel within an air mass that moves very fast," they have explained.
According to sources from Aena informed La Voz, this past Thursday a single flight was cancelled, operated between Madrid and Lanzarote by the company Iberia. Meanwhile, two more flights were diverted to Fuerteventura, one coming from Seville and the other from Leeds. During the first hours of the morning, César Manrique airport was operating with total normality.
🌬️ Flights at dizzying speed in Canary Islands airspace! ✈️🚀
— 😉Air Traffic Controllers 🇪🇸 (@controladores) March 20, 2026
Today, planes south of the archipelago are reaching speeds exceeding 1,170 km/h thanks to strong southwest winds at altitude.
📍 What is happening?
Tailwind: Exceeds in some… pic.twitter.com/txE5uAfc2k
