Monday 26th October saw the inaugural arrival of the carrier Ryanair in the Canary Islands, with the first flight touching down in Gran Canaria in the morning. The low cost airline has introduced sixteen new flights to Lanzarote from the UK which will operate over the coming six months until 31st March 2010.

The introduction of the budget airline’s new routes has come about thanks to the initiative taken by Spanish air authorities AENA to waive the airport tax normally paid by airlines landing at any Spanish airport. This waiver should assist the tourist industry to make up some of the shortfalls in visitor numbers that have already been documented this year.

The company is hoping to bring two million tourists to the archipelago every year and is giving a kick-start to the scheme with the plan to offer 500,000 free seats with a destination or origin in Gran Canaria, Lanzarote or Tenerife for connecting routes.

Lanzarote will see the introduction of new Ryanair routes from Barcelona, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brussels, Dublin, Dusseldorf, East Midlands, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Madrid and Edinburgh amongst others.