The low-cost carrier revolution is here!

For so long ignored by the no frills carriers, the Canary Islands now seem to be in the sights of several, not least Europe’s two biggest, Ryanair and Easy Jet.

The islands might be at the very limits as to distance to make the routes viable from a profitability angle – from the UK that is – but they have taken on board the fact that the archipelago is a bit short all round on affordable deals, bearing in mind links to the mainland especially, and have decided to test the temperature with new routes at unbelievable prices.
For the population of the Canary Islands, so long confined to the arrogant take-it-or-leave-it attitude of the flag carrier Iberia, it’s a case of the sublime to the ridiculous.
Up to now the market between the mainland and the archipelago was in the hands of the traditional companies, the aforementioned Iberia, as well as Spanair and Air Europe. A brief foray by Binter Canarias proved disastrous and was withdrawn. The average ticket cost 150 euros.
“That’s pretty steep taking into account that we are speaking here of domestic flights,” said a spokesman for one low-cost operator last week.
England-based EasyJet opened its first Spanish base in Madrid’s international airport last February. In Nobvember it will be opening up its daily Madrid to Lanzarote route and thrice-weekly service to Fuerteventura – for the princely sum of 20 euros.
“We think the Canaries will be a profitable venture,” said an EasyJet representative. “It is after all very much in demand being a year-round destination thanks to its climate.”
Ryanair was the first to step into the price wars fray in December last year, offering flights to Tenerife and Fuerteventura from its Gerona hub and are proudly boasting a 96% occupancy rate. Six months after the inaugural flight the company is now set to open its sixth service, from Tenerife-Sur and Fuerteventura.
The cheap flight revolution in Spain and its islands isn’t just catering to the demands of the Spanish traveler however, the number of foreign immigrants are no mean consideration when it comes to getting the proverbial bums on seats.
Until relatively recently flying home for any immigrant worker would have been an unthinkable luxury. The proliferation of low-cost flights means they are fast becoming spoilt for choice. EasyJet, recognizing the potential in the vast numbers of Moroccans and Romanians in Spain are opening up routes to both nations.
“Marrakesh and Casablanca have proved very popular over the summer,” said EasyJet. “We have seen how a lot of people from that country have been able to fly home to pass the holiday period with their families.”
As from November there will be a regular service from Madrid to Bucharest in Romania for 18.9 euros. It is the first route to be directed primarily at the immigrant population. And the company expects a warm response from that population which previously had to stump up anything up to 200 euros or more for a ticket.
Moroccans make up Spain’s largest foreign community with some 576,000 residents, closely followed by Romanians who number 525,000.
It is certainly looking like a buyer’s market as far as flying goes at present in Spain. During the first seven months of this year 12.4 million people arrived on low-cost airlines. EasyJet, Ryanair and Germany’s low-cost Air Berlin accounted for about 60% of all low cost flights in and out of the country over that period.
And that’s a bit of a facer for Iberia which has seen its market share in Spain drop to 22% in 2007. The outlook for Iberia and its colleagues Spanair and Air Europe is decidedly gloomy: the price war is set to continue for some time in the skies over Spain.

Canaries to the UK for 10 €

The offer comes from Ryanair who are launching three new routes to the UK this autumn.
Ryanair has announced three new routes with the Canary Islands from this October: two to Liverpool from Tenerife South and Fuerteventura, and another from Tenerife South to East Midlands Airport.
The airline said in a statement on Wednesday that it will bring 65 new jobs to Tenerife and 40 to Fuerteventura. The flights will be operational between 28th and 30th October, according to information from the EFE news agency.

Summer increase for Spanair

Spanair announced a summer increase in its Canary Islands service including the following new weekly flights: Seville-Lanzarote, Bilbao-Fuerteventura, Seville-Fuerteventura, Santiago-Fuerteventura, Granada-Tenerife Sur and Pamplona-Tenerife Sur. During the summer it will operate 38 routes from 13 Spanish cities to five Canary destinations.

American Star Update

For all those who are interested here's a pic of the American Star as she sits today. ... Not much left really

The Spanish Cup: Ramón Julián and Iratí Anda win first round

Catalan Julián and Basque Anda walk away victorious in Fuerteventura.
Two moments with Ramón Julián during the competition. Photo: D. Munilla
The new Corralejo climbing wall (Fuerteventura), promoted by the company Red Shark and installed inside the water park Baku, was the arena for the first round of the Spanish climbing cup. This artificial climbing structure is again a free standing installation with two different sections, one basically vertical (used for warming up) made with Quiros (fiber glass) panels and one overhanging made with 3D Real Rock panels, which was of course the section holding the competition routes.

Ramón Julián in the male category and Iratí Anda in the female category emerged as winners, both climbing the routes with ease and authority.

The top 6 finishers. Photo: D. Munilla
Ramón Julián (Top30 Team) dominated the category followed by the young Erik López whose second place confirms his great talent and good form profoundly demonstrated in the Spanish Championship at Pilar de la Horadada recently. Catalan Eduard Marín (Top30 Team) finished third and showed clear signs of fatigue and commented that he felt pretty exhausted after intensive training lately in preparation for the upcoming international events.
In the female class Iratí Anda was again untouchable and showed convincing climbing. Local Daila Ojeda also put on a promising performance and finished second ahead of Andrea Cartas from Andalucia.

The next round of the Spanish cup will take place in Terrassa, which has been one of the venues in earlier editions of the cup. But we will have to wait till October as now we return to international action. The closing comp arrives in November in connection with the traditional IFEMA in Madrid. Download picture folder (*zip)

Ryanair axes three routes, cuts six others to make way for new services

Budget airline Ryanair Holdings said it is closing three routes and cutting back six others to make way for eight new services.
Ryanair (nasdaq: RYAAY - news - people ) said it will close three routes in November, from Shannon to Bournemouth, Lodz in Poland, and Rome.

It also said services between Shannon and Biarritz, Carcassonne, Milan, Murcia, Nantes and Venice will switch to a summer-only basis, between April and October ,to accommodate the eight new routes from the airport in west Ireland.

The new destinations from Shannon include Birmingham, Dublin, Fuerteventura, Kaunas in Lithuania, Leeds, Luton, Riga in Latvia and Tenerife

Climbing contest comes to Fuerteventura

Climbers from around the world will be making their way to Fuerteventura this summer to prove their worth on the area's climbing walls.

Having started at the Pilar de la Hordada, the Spanish climbing cup comes to the Grand Canaria island of Fuerteventura and, on Baku, one of Spain's top 30 walls will test contestants gripping, crimping, and rocking over.

The competition, which is open to both juniors and seniors, highlights a growing culture of climbing that offers both residents and tourists a new reason to go to the Canary Islands.

Not only do the islands enjoy marvellous weather and spectacular scenery but they are developing climbing on walls as well as exploiting the natural climbing areas that nature has blessed the island with.

The quality of the climbing is proven by the fact that top name Spanish climbers will be mounting the walls on June 2nd and 3rd.

With cheap flights to Fuerteventura, indulging in the energetic adrenaline sport has become more accessible.

Al Gore to preach his message in Fuerteventura - Tenerife News

Al Gore to preach his message in the Canaries. Climate change man of the moment, former US vice-president Al Gore, has announced he will be heading up a three day climate change summit in Fuerteventura in September.

The venue for the world congress of leaders in climate change was settled on following a proposal put to him by the regional environment minister, Domingo Berriel. Mr Gore will host the meeting to which 200 high profile world leaders of opinion in different fields, such as politics, the economy and culture will be invited. They will hear about the latest data affecting climate change, learn more about the principles of the phenomenon and be supplied with the information tools to communicate the message – also contained in his Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth – back in their own countries.

Sr Berriel could hardly contain his elation at the news that Mr Gore had accepted his idea. “The choice of the Canaries for this major event is another example of the importance the islands are gaining in the world congress stakes, and in the field of spreading scientific knowledge, particularly environmental knowledge,” he said. “Fuerteventura, which has one of the highest factors of erosion risk in the EU, will serve as an eloquent and dramatic backdrop to the event.”

Morocco-Canary Island ferry to start in 2007
afrol News, 22 November - A final decision to launch a ferry route between the Spanish Canary Island of Fuerteventura and the southern-most port of Morocco, Tarfaya, has been made. The new line, which is to transport both persons and goods, is to be inaugurated no later than next summer, the autonomous government of the Canary Islands has announced.
Plans to make such a seaway connection were announced in Fuerteventura - the island closest to the African mainland - earlier this year. By now, the plans are so much developed that Adán Martín, President of the autonomous islands, yesterday announced that a regular ferry service between the Fuerteventura port of Puerto del Rosario and southern Morocco's Tarfaya was to commence "before next summer."
Many details of the upcoming ferry connection however still need to be elaborated. For example, neither the type of ferry nor the timetable has been detailed by Canary Island authorities or the shipping company. Depending on the type of vessel chosen, the journey could take anything from two and a half hour to four hours, President Martín noted.

By staff writers
afrol News

Drunk causes havoc on flight to Glasgow

A flight from Fuerteventura to Glasgow had to be diverted to Santiago de Compostela airport in northern Spain in order to dump a drunk and disorderly passenger.

The man, who was reported to be Irish, shouted, swore and fought with flight attendants. Passengers were shocked by his antics and described his behaviour as abusive.
One person, who happened to be a retired police officer, and who had a good view of the entire episode, said later: “It was a very distressing experience. He came on the plane drunk and he then obviously just drank his duty free from the neck of the bottle.”
The problems began in earnest some two hours into the flight when the drunk, who was sitting towards the tail of the plane, began shouting loudly.
Cabin staff apparently threatened to restrain him with cable but that made him even more abusive and after about ten minutes the captain announced over the tannoy that he had decided to land in Santiago de Compostela.