The tourism industry’s remarkable recovery has exceeded expectations, and both the ongoing summer campaign and the upcoming winter campaign starting in October are anticipated to approach pre-pandemic record levels. Ryanair, the leading airline for passenger traffic to and from Spanish airports, experienced a significant surge in June, carrying 1.5 million more passengers compared to the same month in 2022. With a total of 96,250 flights during the past month, the Irish carrier concludes the first half of 2023 with nearly 174 million passengers, reflecting a remarkable 29% increase from the previous year.
Elena Cabrera, the airline’s spokesperson for Spain and Portugal, attributed their success to a high occupancy factor, with an impressive 95% of seats filled in June.
In November of the preceding year, the airline announced the reopening of its bases in the Canary Islands: Tenerife Sur and Lanzarote, which had been temporarily closed due to the pandemic. The decision was motivated by the consistently strong performance of the Canary Islands as a destination. As a result, Ryanair resumed operations with a notable investment of 400 million euros, deploying four aircraft, generating 120 direct jobs (60 in Lanzarote and 60 in Tenerife), establishing 70 routes (including six new ones: Cologne, Knock, and Paris in Lanzarote, and Bordeaux, Eindhoven, and Nuremberg in Tenerife), and operating 520 weekly flights, representing a growth rate of over 10%.
This strategic move has proven highly successful. Cabrera shared that the Canary Islands have performed exceptionally well during the summer, experiencing a 9%-10% increase above the average. She expressed contentment with the outlook for the archipelago, as Ryanair offers a total of 127 routes with the Islands this summer, with 50 of them exclusively served by Ryanair. The airline provides more than 800 weekly frequencies and has based four aircraft at island airports, with an ambitious goal to serve 4.7 million passengers in the Canary Islands.
Compared to the summer of 2022, the company has increased frequencies and capacity by 5%, indicating a clear commitment to further growth in the region, where positive data has always been evident. Notably, the most prominent passengers primarily originate from Ireland, and the most successful routes from the Canary Islands include Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and Santiago de Compostela.
