Have passenger numbers risen or fallen?

Both, depending on the period: in the month of August 2026 they rose 0.81 per cent to 4,768,328 passengers; cumulatively to August they fell 0.24 per cent to 36,314,210.

Why does Aena give no Canary figure?

The reports are organised by individual airport and by the group's country blocks, not by region. There is no row for the archipelago.

Which airport loses most?

Tenerife South: 8,949,415 passengers in eight months, 304,401 fewer than in 2025. Five other airports grew, which is why the archipelago's shortfall comes out smaller.

Is it the international or the domestic market?

Cumulatively the international one: 21,088,675 passengers, down 0.5 per cent, against 15,085,950 domestic, up 0.6 per cent. In August both segments grew.

When will the September figures appear?

Aena puts them on the same portal page; the August report was available in mid-September. It states no binding date there for the September one.

CANARY ISLANDS · ECONOMY

87,472 fewer passengers: why Canary airports have stalled while Spain grows 4.1 per cent

Aena's August figures turn the obvious expectation on its head. In the month of August 2026 the eight island airports handled 4,768,328 passengers, 0.8 per cent more than a year earlier, and seven of the eight grew. Only the cumulative account turns negative: 36,314,210 passengers from January to August, 87,472 fewer than in 2025, a fall of 0.24 per cent. Both totals are our own arithmetic, because Aena publishes no "Canary Islands" row. The finding is not the minus sign but the comparison: Spain's airport network grew 4.08 per cent over the same period.

28 September 2026 · By Martin Kosinski · 5 min. · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief

The terminal façade of Gran Canaria airport in Telde (illustrative)

Photo: Mololo, CC BY-SA 4.0 (illustrative image).

The figures and where they come from

August 2026: 4,768,328 passengers, up 0.81 per cent on 4,730,200 in August 2025; January to August: 36,314,210, down 87,472 or 0.24 per cent on 36,401,682. Our own sums from the "Ranking mensual" and "Ranking acumulado" sheets of Aena's monthly report.
Spain: 225,543,599 passengers in eight months, up 4.08 per cent, and 34,890,784 in August (up 4.69 per cent). Aena; Forbes España calls the eight-month figure an all-time record.
The only August decline: Tenerife South, 1,064,586 passengers, down 4.2 per cent. Cumulatively 8,949,415, down 3.3 per cent.
Domestic 15,085,950 (+0.6 per cent), international 21,088,675 (−0.5 per cent), 324,581 aircraft movements and 20,359 tonnes of cargo over eight months, published on 15 September by Atlántico Hoy, Libertad Digital and Crónicas de Lanzarote from Aena data.

The month of August: seven airports up, one down

Gran Canaria leads the monthly table with 1,334,497 passengers, up 3.1 per cent. Next come Tenerife South with 1,064,586, Lanzarote César Manrique with 830,015 (+0.5 per cent), Tenerife North-Ciudad de La Laguna with 699,814 (+2.4 per cent) and Fuerteventura with 640,687 (+1.9 per cent). The strongest growth was on La Palma: 148,857, up 7.2 per cent. El Hierro counted 35,158 (+3.1 per cent) and La Gomera 14,714 (+3.0 per cent). The only decline is at Tenerife South: 46,146 passengers fewer than in August 2025.

Eight months: the shortfall is small, the gap to Spain is not

Cumulatively, five airports are above last year: Gran Canaria with 10,601,420 (+1.4 per cent), Tenerife North with 4,921,743 (+3.0 per cent), La Palma with 1,073,454 (+5.2 per cent), El Hierro with 214,969 (+3.0 per cent) and La Gomera with 86,862 (+0.5 per cent). Three are below, and one carries the entire decline: Tenerife South lost 304,401 passengers — more than the whole archipelago's shortfall of 87,472. Fuerteventura lost 97,247 (4,522,987, −2.1 per cent) and Lanzarote 37,439 (5,943,360, −0.6 per cent). Spain grew 4.08 per cent. The Canary share of Spanish air traffic fell from 16.80 to 16.10 per cent.

Domestic traffic edges up, international shrinks

Aena's freely available monthly report does not separate domestic from international; the detailed reports on its portal sit behind a registration. The split was published on 15 September by Atlántico Hoy, Libertad Digital and Crónicas de Lanzarote, all three with identical values: over eight months, 15,085,950 passengers on domestic routes, up 0.6 per cent, and 21,088,675 on international routes, down 0.5 per cent. In the month of August both segments grew, domestic by 1.2 and international by 1.1 per cent.

An independent dataset points the same way: according to Turespaña figures reported by the Canary public broadcaster RTVC on 18 August, the islands received 9,209,072 international air passengers between January and July, 0.7 per cent fewer, while Spain counted 67 million, up 5.2 per cent. The two counts are not comparable: Aena counts arrivals and departures, Turespaña arrivals only.

The cause: what is on the record and what is not

For the August figures themselves there is no official explanation: in the publications we reviewed, neither an authority nor a trade body names a cause. We do not speculate here.

There is an earlier official reading of the direction. On 22 January 2026 the Canary government stated that air capacity to the islands was stabilising. Jéssica de León, regional minister for tourism and employment, said there: "The pace of seat growth after the pandemic was unsustainable in the long run, and now a phase of consolidation and stabilisation begins." Canarias7 wrote on 6 August that dearer fuel had pushed package holiday prices up by 20 per cent and cut June's tourist numbers by 4.7 per cent.

A base-year effect is demonstrable from the tables: over the first eight months of 2025 the island airports were 5.02 per cent above 2024, when they handled 34,663,115 passengers. Measured against 2024, the 2026 figure is still 4.8 per cent higher. The decline is a comparison against a record, not a collapse.

Flights and freight: two side pictures that do not match

On aircraft movements the islands grew faster than on passengers: 41,702 take-offs and landings in August, by our calculation up 2.4 per cent, and 324,581 cumulatively, up 0.9 per cent. La Gomera stands out: 2,728 movements in eight months, 12.5 per cent fewer than in 2025, with 0.5 per cent more passengers. Freight is clearly falling: 2,340,882 kilograms in August, down 10.6 per cent, and 20,359,091 kilograms cumulatively, a little over 20,359 tonnes, down 4.3 per cent. Across Spain, by contrast, air cargo rose 1.85 per cent.

How to check the figures yourself: on Aena's statistics portal, "Estadísticas de tráfico aéreo" leads to the monthly reports, with a PDF and a spreadsheet for each month. Two traps: the file carries an .xls extension but is in fact an xlsx; and the portal refuses requests that identify themselves as a script, while an ordinary browser works. The sheet "Ranking mensual" holds the monthly values and "Ranking acumulado" the year-to-date ones. There is no Canary row: anyone needing an archipelago figure has to add up the eight island airports themselves.

Three pitfalls: first, month against cumulative — in August traffic rose 0.8 per cent, cumulatively it fell 0.24 per cent; swapping the two reverses the headline. Second, Aena marks every figure as provisional. Third, passengers are not tourists: Aena counts arrivals and departures, so each holidaymaker twice, and residents and inter-island connections are included.

FAQ

Have passenger numbers risen or fallen?: Both, depending on the period: in the month of August 2026 they rose 0.81 per cent to 4,768,328 passengers; cumulatively to August they fell 0.24 per cent to 36,314,210.
Why does Aena give no Canary figure?: The reports are organised by individual airport and by the group's country blocks, not by region. There is no row for the archipelago.
Which airport loses most?: Tenerife South: 8,949,415 passengers in eight months, 304,401 fewer than in 2025. Five other airports grew, which is why the archipelago's shortfall comes out smaller.
Is it the international or the domestic market?: Cumulatively the international one: 21,088,675 passengers, down 0.5 per cent, against 15,085,950 domestic, up 0.6 per cent. In August both segments grew.
When will the September figures appear?: Aena puts them on the same portal page; the August report was available in mid-September. It states no binding date there for the September one.

Read on

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