The American carrier United Airlines will offer a total of 13,400 seats on its direct flight between New York and Tenerife over the next four months. The route will start operating again on 9 June and will continue until 27 September.
The route will connect Newark Liberty International Airport with Tenerife South three times a week in each direction. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays it will depart from the USA, and on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from the island. The flight will take six hours and fifty minutes and will be operated by a B757-200 aircraft, with 169 seats (16 polaris and 153 in economy class).
The acting president of The Island Council of Tenerife, Pedro Martín, highlights “the consolidation of this connection after last year’s excellent occupancy figures, close to 90 percent”, and says that “if the good occupancy figures are repeated this year, it is expected that in 2024 the flight will have an annual schedule”.
In this regard, he also announced that in the coming weeks a new direct flight could be confirmed from North America, specifically from the east coast of Canada, for which Turismo de Tenerife has been working over the last few months. In addition, at the end of the year the island will participate, with the help of Turespaña, in trade fairs in Korea and India, while we continue to make progress in the Middle East.
Last year a total of 26,507 North American travellers arrived on the island, 55% more than in 2019, before the pandemic. These figures are largely due to the direct flight operated by United Airlines from June to September. Likewise, the rate of growth has also been maintained so far in 2023, with a total of 11,138 travellers arriving in Tenerife from the United States in the first four months of the year.
In the case of Canada, between January and April a total of 2,307 travellers have accumulated, almost 75 percent more. In both cases they have arrived via connecting flights from the cities of Madrid, London, Lisbon or Casablanca, which are operated by airlines that link them, in turn, with different points of origin in North America.
As part of this trend of consolidation in this market, Tenerife is already included in the range of destinations offered by the different brands of the North American tour operator Apple Leisure Group Vacations, such as Apple Vacations, Funjet Vacations, Travel Impressions and United Vacations, which are marketed directly through travel agencies in the United States. The island is also offered as a destination to the end customers of BeachBound, a tour operator also part of Apple Leisure Group Vacations.
TENERIFE TOURISM FOMENTING ACTIONS IN THE U.S.A. AND CANADA
In recent years Tenerife has strengthened its presence in the United States and Canada through numerous promotional activities to publicise the destination. The island has become a member of the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA), which brings together the main executives of American tour operators, and has joined the Virtuoso travel agency network, which allows it to give visibility to the attractions of the destination among its more than 21,000 agents, not only in North America but also on other continents.
Tenerife has also become an affiliate member of the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA), one of the largest travel trade associations in the world, and is also a member of Signature Travel Work, which represents more than 15,000 travel advisors in the United States and Canada.
The promotional activities carried out by Tenerife Tourism in the United States and Canada are complemented by campaigns with tour operators such as Avanti Destinations and United Airlines itself. Also with initiatives such as a visit by 14 North American travel agents to the island starting on 10 June with the tour operator ALG Vacations.
