Will flights to the Canary Islands get more expensive in 2027?

That is not proven. No source gives a price change, and the estimates cover only the number of seats from April to October 2027.

How many flight seats from the UK will be lost in 2027?

According to the estimates presented at the WTM, the UK loses 7.7% or 332,390 seats between April and October 2027. For Germany they give 7.4% or 99,121 seats.

Why are airlines cutting their capacity?

Jessica de León cites uncertain fuel prices and higher operating costs. Airlines are focusing on profitable routes, and late bookings by British families make planning harder.

Which islands and routes are affected?

That has not been published. The report names no airlines, islands or routes.

Are fewer British tourists coming to the Canary Islands?

Not so far. From January to September 2026, 4.7 million Britons came, 1.3% more than a year earlier.

Canary Islands: 332,390 fewer UK flight seats, summer 2027

What changes for holidaymakers in summer 2027?

Airlines plan 3.5% fewer flight seats to the Canary Islands from April to October 2027 than in the same period of 2026. The Canary delegation presented the preliminary estimates at the WTM travel fair in London.

The UK loses 7.7% or 332,390 seats, and Germany 7.4% or 99,121 seats. Both markets sit well above the 3.5% average.

Nobody had published a price figure by Thursday 5 November 2026. Fewer seats could mean higher fares and less choice, but that is not proven.

The report does not say which airlines, routes or islands are affected. So anyone booking in the south of Tenerife or Gran Canaria cannot yet tell whether their own connection will go.

Jessica de León, Consejera de Turismo y Empleo (the Canary government's tourism and employment minister), urges caution because the planning is still open. She said the flight programmes are “subject to possible changes”, so anyone booking for 2027 should check the airline's schedule again shortly before travel.

Why are airlines cutting seats if British visitors keep coming?

4.7 million British tourists came to the Canary Islands from January to September 2026, 1.3% more than a year earlier. That makes British visitors 36% of all arrivals, according to the statement issued for the fair.

Jessica de León says the cuts are a business decision, not a sign of fading interest in the islands. She says the airlines are keeping a “cautious stance” on costs and international uncertainty.

Higher fuel and operating costs force the carriers to rethink routes, the report says. They are pooling capacity on the connections that earn the most.

British families often book late, which makes planning harder for airlines and pushes them towards a tighter supply. Household purchasing power is falling, yet the report says the will to travel remains solid.

What does Ryanair have to do with the cuts?

Ryanair cut about 400,000 seats in the Canary Islands for winter 2025/26, roughly 10% of its capacity there, and dropped Tenerife North. The airline blames excessive fees charged by the airport operator AENA.

On 8 October 2026, Ryanair announced it would cancel its Berlin routes to Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote for winter 2026/27. In Germany that removes 700,000 seats, and in Berlin half of the capacity.

The WTM estimates for 2027 name no single airline. Whether Ryanair contributes to the cuts is therefore not proven.

AENA wanted airport fees to rise 3.82% a year, while the competition authority CNMC proposed a 0.59% cut. The dispute is over DORA III, the rulebook in which the Spanish Council of Ministers sets fees for 2027 to 2031.

Reports say the Council has since agreed 0.33% more per year and 1,807 million euros for the Canary airports. That figure has not been checked against the BOE (Spain's official state gazette).

How important are British visitors to the islands?

Seven in ten Britons who travel to Spain choose the Canary Islands, according to Promotur data from October 2025. Of these, 80% are repeat visitors and 26% have been at least ten times.

A British visitor spends 1,472 euros per trip on average, says Promotur. That is about 191 euros a day over a stay of around eight days, and about 8 billion euros in total.

For summer 2026, Turismo de Islas Canarias reported 4.34 million British seats, 1.9% more than the year before. The drop for 2027 therefore reverses that trend.

The Frontur statistics counted 7.80 million foreign tourists in the Canary Islands from January to June 2026, against 7.84 million a year earlier. That is a fall of 0.6%.

What is still open, and when will it become clearer?

At the WTM (3 to 5 November 2026, ExCeL London), the Canary delegation met TUI, Jet2 and the British travel agents' association ABTA. The islands' stated aim is to keep the British market loyal, with a focus on winter connections.

It is unclear where the 7.7% comes from, as the report names neither Promotur nor AENA nor a data provider. Nor is it clear whether airlines will reverse cuts if bookings stay strong.

José Juan Lorenzo, managing director of Turismo de Islas Canarias, warned about destinations outside the EU with lower cost structures. They could sharpen competition, he said, because the Canary Islands can barely match them on fares.

Jessica de León describes summer 2027 as a demanding period. No dates are known yet for the airlines' flight schedules, or for the final Frontur data on the rest of 2026 from the ISTAC, the Canary statistics office.