Ryanair officially opened its new base in Tenerife this morning (Tuesday) and presented its package of 39 routes for the summer of 2023, which includes three new ones to Bordeaux, Eindhoven, and Nuremberg. In addition, the airline has increased the number of flights to eight existing routes: Bristol, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, Agadir, Santiago, Seville, Vienna, and Warsaw.
Ryanair will base two new aircraft in Tenerife during the summer, completing an investment of 185 million euros that has involved the direct hiring of 60 new members of staff.
In total, they are adding more than 285 weekly flights to their schedule, which represents a 5% growth compared to the summer of 2022. The airline says that they expect to fly 2.8 million passengers to or from Tenerife a year.
Elena Cabrera, Ryanair's Manager for Spain and Portugal, said that the average occupancy during the winter of Ryanair's operations in Tenerife was 95%, three points above the companies average, which has motivated the expansion of routes for the summer taking advantage of opening of the base.
Ryanair plans to fly 1.4 million passengers to and from the Tenerife South airport during this period, according to Cabrera, in addition to "2.8 million during the fiscal year", which runs from April 2023 to the same month of 2024.
The importance of reopening the bases.
The reopening of the Ryanair bases is an important milestone for the company and will mean better service for passengers.
"The base is where the plane sleeps and there, in general, you have a better connection and security for the routes. In the Canary Islands, geographically, it makes more sense to have bases. If you have a problem with any connection, you would have to bring another plane from Malaga, which is the closest base. Now, having them in the Canary Islands, we have a team behind to maintain all the planes," Elena Cabrera explained.
The Canaries is an important place for Ryanair in Spain. Nationwide, the company has the goal of transporting 52 million passengers this year and, according to Cabrera, it is always on the lookout for new ‘flight slot’ opportunities. There may be a good opportunity in the near future to gain some more after the purchase of Air Europa by Iberia, when they streamline their operation.
