Vueling announced that it will connect London/Gatwick (LGW) with three destinations in the Canary Islands: Gran Canarias (LPA), Lanzarote (ACE) and Tenerife/South (TFS) from the first week of December, the start of the northern winter season.
According to the press release, the low cost airline would connect with the following frequencies:
- Lanzarote (ACE); starting December 8, on Thursdays and Saturdays.
- Gran Canarias (LPA); from December 7, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
- Tenerife/South (TFS); from December 6, on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
The Canary Islands is a popular tourist destination for Britons looking to escape to a sunny destination in the middle of winter. For Vueling, these new routes are part of an «Advanced Network Design Transformative Plan» with the aim of transforming the stationary to scheduled routes into attractive destinations.
The plan involves improving the current route network and making aircraft efficient in terms of the use they make of it, minimizing aircraft ground time, resulting in the closure of bases where aircraft used to stay overnight. It also takes into account the demand of the routes and introduced new complements.
Vueling currently serves 12 Spanish destinations at Gatwick (A Coruña, Almería, Asturias, Barcelona, Bilbao, Granada, Málaga, Menorca, Jerez de la Frontera, Santiago de Compostela, Seville and Valencia), three to Italy (Rome/Fiumicino, Florence and Genoa) and Paris/Orly.
Details of the new destinations
Lanzarote received 402,222 passengers from London during the first seven months of the year (January to July). Vueling will have to compete with British Airways (Gatwick), Easyjet (Luton and Gatwick), Jet2.com (Stansted), Ryanair (Luton and Stansted) and TUI Airways (Luton and Gatwick).
Between Gran Canarias and London it moved 276,812 passengers between January and July 2022. The Spanish low cost will have to compete with British Airways (Gatwick), Easyjet (Luton and Gatwick), Jet2.com (Stansted), Ryanair (Luton and Stansted), TUI Airways (Gatwick and Stansted) and Wizz Air (Gatwick).
Tenerife is the busiest destination between the Canary Islands and London, handling 735,991 passengers in the last seven months of 2022. Currently, British Airways (Gatwick and Heathrow), Easyjet (Luton and Stansted), Ryanair (Stansted and Luton), TUI Airways (Luton, Stansted and Gatwick) and Wizz Air (Gatwick and Luton) connect both cities.
