There are few places in Europe to go for winter warmth. Perhaps the most well-known is the Canary Islands, part of Spain but geographically close to southern Morocco. The latest Cirium data shows that the six airports with international flights – Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, Tenerife South, and Tenerife North (very limited) – have 93,000 departing flights in the first two quarters (January-June) 2023. Of these, 41% are international across 29 nations. The UK is the most served and has nearly twice as many flights as second-placed Germany.

Manchester is #1 to the Canaries

The first two quarters of 2023 have up to 117 daily flights between the UK and Canaries, which occurred on January 5th. That's based on examining schedules using Cirium data, which reveals an average of 87. In the past two decades, the highest number was 126, held on two occasions in January 2017 and 2019.

Some 20 UK airports have non-stops to the Canaries in the analyzed first six months. The schedules for the past couple of years show that they no longer include Southend (last Canaries flights in March 2020) or Doncaster (now shut).

At the airport level, Manchester is the most popular (2,499 departures; 16% of the UK total). Next is London Gatwick (2,413; 15.3%), then Stansted (1,721; 10.9%), Birmingham (1,280; 8.1%), and Bristol (1,168; 7.4%). In contrast, Aberdeen has the fewest services (1x to 2x weekly by TUI to Tenerife South).

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Tenerife is the most popular

Tenerife South welcomes 44% of UK services in Q1/Q2, making it the most popular island among the Brits. It is followed by Lanzarote (27%), Gran Canaria (16%), Fuerteventura (12%), and – very distantly last – La Palma (0.2%). The UK is the leading foreign nation at Tenerife South and Lanzarote; Germany is at the others.

The UK hasn't had flights to Tenerife North – mainly used by domestic Spain flights because that's where most Spaniards live – since Iberia ended Heathrow in 2016.

The UK is responsible for almost 1 in 2 Tenerife South departures and has up to 56 daily. All 20 UK airports with Canaries flights have routes to Tenerife South. Then it's Lanzarote (17), Gran Canaria (16), Fuerteventura (13), and La Palma (2).

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Only Tenerife & Lanzarote are in the top 10

Analyzing the 68 UK-Canaries airport pairs reveals that only Tenerife South and Lanzarote appear in the top ten most served list:

Will you be flying to the Canary Islands soon? If so, let us know by commenting.