At the International Tourism Fair (ITB), in addition to new information about the upcoming Ryanair base in Berlin, traffic expectation data for Gran Canaria was also revealed. According to ElPeriódicoDeCanarias José Miguel Bravo de Laguna, president of the local government, announced that the number of airline seats for the island will increase around 3% from the main airports in Germany during the summer season. In total, the number of seats between April and September will reach around 420,000, which means around 12,000 more seats than the same period in 2014.
Gran Canaria will have two new routes from Saarbrücken and Karlsruhe operated by TUIfly in addition to two other new routes opened up by Germania from Münster and Rostock. Moreover, Condor will recover a direct flight from Hannover and Lufthansa will continue operating from Munich. Germania is predicted to close a deal for a new regular flight between Gran Canaria and Kassel to begin next winter season, 2015/16.
Of all the seats for the 3% projected increase, more than 133,000 will be operated by Condor. TUIfly will offer around 124,000 seats, which means that these two companies monopolize two-thirds of the market.
Among the companies that are experiencing the greatest increases are Germania with 25,000 seats, up 136% from last year; Ryanair offering almost 23,000 seats and TUIfly with an increase of 8.5% approximately.
Once again, the majority of German tourists that traveled to Gran Canaria in 2014 did so from the Düsseldorf airport, with 156,668 passengers compared to the 141,255 passengers in 2013, a 10.91% increase. The second largest in passenger volume was Frankfurt with 101,059 passengers in 2014, almost 5,500 more than the year before. Hamburg had 97,195 travelers to Gran Canaria in 2014. Munich (Franz Josef Strauss) airport increased from 75,037 tourists to 99,238 and Cologne from 58,551 to 76,857. Hannover had 67,577 passengers in 2014.
Thomas Cook UK will increase its frequency in Fuerteventura
In other news, ABC informed that Thomas Cook UK will increase its frequency to Fuerteventura during the summer. Thomas Cook UK operated eight weekly flights in 2014 which will reach eleven this year. The article mentions that these flights will proceed from the Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, London Stansted, London Gatwick and East Midlands airports.
Photo: . By Rolf Jonsen – flickr.
