The Canary Islands airline, Binter have announced that from July it will open new international routes operating direct links with five destinations in Italy and France. The homegrown airline, which started with inter-island flights, expands their connections with regular flights to the European airports of Toulouse, Marseille and Lille, in France, and Turin and Venice, in Italy.
Binter will maintain the routes to mainland Spain they currently operate and, in addition, this summer will open a new route with Tarragona, expanding their offer to ten direct flight routes between the mainland and the Canary Islands.
The announcement was made at a press conference last week with Rodolfo Núñez, president of Binter, and Juan Ramsden, the general coordinator of the company, together with the president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, the Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing, Sebastián Franquis, and the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Yaiza Castilla, who emphasised the great effort that the airline has made to improve connectivity with the Archipelago and the new possibilities offered by the incorporation of five new jet aircraft to its fleet.
Núñez highlighted the importance of Canarian companies firmly committing to recovery on the Islands, promoting all those initiatives that are within their reach to achieve that goal. “This new international leap represents a great challenge for Binter in a very complex context, but we continue to invest in the connectivity of the entire archipelago, of the eight islands, following the strategic plan that we drew up before the pandemic. In the future, if all goes well, and according to plan, we will continue to put more frequencies and perhaps more destinations, both from Tenerife and from Gran Canaria, and without ruling out direct flights to, or from, other islands. The important thing is to sell all the Canary Islands as a whole ”, he pointed out.
Juan Ramsden encouraged political representatives to continue working to advance the vaccination process and highlighted the importance of developing, in the short term, the European health passport, which will allow safe mobility for all travellers. “It is necessary for anyone who wishes to travel by plane to another country or region to know that they can do so in complete safety, without obstacles, or complex regulations,” he said.
On Binter routes there will now be 94 direct weekly connections and more than 600,000 seats per year, between the archipelago and Spanish and European destinations, operated by the Canarian airline. These flights will be carried out using five new Embraer aircraft, model E195-E2, the quietest, cleanest and most efficient single-aisle jet aircraft in its class; with a configuration that allows more space between rows and the comfort of not having a seat in the middle. To this are added other differential advantages, such as its characteristic quality on-board service, which includes courtesy catering during the flight.
Recently, the company has been recognised, for constant renewal of its fleet, by the Swiss airlines services provider Ch-Aviation, for currently having one of the youngest fleets in Europe, with an average age of 4.8 years for its 28 aircraft.
Ángel Víctor Torres, president of the Canary Islands, referred to Binter’s presentation as “a day for good news” and stressed the value of this airline’s decision to expand air connectivity with the Islands. Through the incorporation of new national and international routes, a project, he said, that is relevant “for Canarians and for tourism in our Archipelago.”
Binter has scheduled 18 weekly flights with the new European destinations, so that most will have connections two days a week.
The connections with Lille will be on Mondays and Thursdays with departure at 10.45 am from Gran Canaria and return at 4:40 pm, with arrival time in the Canary Islands at 8 pm. Toulouse will be linked on Tuesdays and Saturdays with a very similar schedule, departing at 10.30 am on Tuesdays and at 11.00 am on Saturdays from the Canary Islands and return at 3.45 pm, or 4.15 pm on Saturdays. The route with Marseille, there will be on Fridays with departure from the Islands at 10:30 am and return at 4:10 pm, to land in the Canary Islands at 7:00 pm.
Both Italian destinations will have two weekly links. On Mondays and Wednesdays there will be flights to Venice, departing from the Canary Islands at 10.20 a.m. and returning at 4.35 p.m., to reach the Archipelago at 8.15 p.m. Turin will be connected on Tuesdays and Saturdays with departure at 11.00 a.m. from Gran Canaria Airport on Tuesdays and at 10.30 a.m. on Saturdays and return at 4:45 p.m. or 4:20 p.m., with arrival time on the island at 8:05 p.m. or 7:40 p.m. .
Free connections with other islands and launch promotion
On all these international and national routes, Binter are offering passengers the advantage of travelling, at no additional cost, to and from any of the Canary Islands, by being able to make the inter-island jump free of charge in the case of connecting flights, taking advantage of the 170 daily inter-island flights that the airline already operates between the islands.
Binter are launching their new connections with France, Italy and Tarragona with a promotion that will allow customers to purchase tickets at very attractive prices.
Tickets for these destinations can now be purchased through the company’s usual sales channels: www.bintercanarias.com, the Binter app, by telephone on 922/928 32 77 00, through travel agencies and their offices at airports.
Investing in the external connectivity of the Islands
Binter began operating in the Canary archipelago in 1989 to offer connections between all the islands with a clear focus on public service.
In 2005, they also began operating outside the Canary Islands with the aim of offering direct connections to other markets, a program that has grown over the years, with flight routes to Portugal, reaching Lisbon and Madeira; Africa, linking the Canary Islands with destinations such as Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir, Dakhla, El Aaiún, Nouakchott, Dakar, Banjul and the island of Sal.
In 2018, the airline began regular operations with Spanish national destinations, first to Mallorca and Vigo and, later, to Pamplona, Zaragoza, Murcia, Santander, Vitoria, Asturias and Cádiz (Jerez de la Frontera). In 2021, direct flights with Tarragona are to be incorporated.
Added to all these routes this summer are the Italian cities of Turin and Venice, and the French cities of Marseille, Toulouse and Lille, with which Binter connects the Canary Islands and a total of 26 destinations beyond the archipelago.
