Aer Lingus, which already offers eight weekly flights from the main Irish airports of Dublin, Belfast and Cork, plan to add a route from Shannon to Lanzarote this year. The news comes as a result of meetings held between the Councillor for Tourism, Luis Arraez and the airline’s management. It also comes on the back of Lanzarote being voted for the eighth year running the number one destination for sun and sea by the Irish Travel Trade organisation.

Jet2, which already provides flights five times a week to Lanzarote from Edinburgh and Blackpool, is planning to add the East Midlands to its schedule. This will increase the number of seats from northern England offered by the low cost airline by 53%.

In the months leading up to last summer British tourism had declined by close to 20%.  As consumers in the UK really felt the impact of the economic crisis.  Whilst sterling stumbled against the Euro – making holidays in Lanzarote and other euro zone destinations that much more expensive.

But there was a remarkable turnaround during November – thanks largely to the introduction of a whole raft of new cheap flights to the island from Ryanair.  Who quickly established themselves as the largest carriers of tourists to Lanzarote in their first month of operation.  Transporting a total of 44,232 passengers to the island.

The Irish market also showed small signs of improvement across the same period – with visitor numbers from Eire up by 1.47% during November too.