In August, Tenerife South Airport recorded the worst punctuality rate of all six Canary Islands airports included in the survey. Tenerife North, of all places, is at the very opposite end of the scale. The island’s smaller airport tops the ranking as the most punctual in the Canary Islands.
Depending on their departure point, travellers on the islands faced very different waiting times for their flights this summer. The editorial team analysed the departure data provided by the Spanish airport operator Aena.
This gives an indication of which airports holidaymakers are likely to have to wait longer at, and at which Canary Islands airport transfers are likely to depart on time. Here are the results:
Canary Islands: Tenerife North was the most punctual in August
On average, departure delays at Tenerife South Airport totalled 18 minutes and 12 seconds. Only 63.5 per cent of the 3,247 departures analysed took off with a delay of no more than 15 minutes. As a result, the airport also recorded the sharpest decline compared with the previous month. In July, the average delay was still 15 minutes and 50 seconds. The on-time performance rate fell from 65 to 63.5 per cent.
This is not an entirely new picture: an analysis of the Christmas holidays – a key period for tourism – had already identified Tenerife South as Spain’s most unpunctual airport, whilst Tenerife North was among the most punctual in the country at the time.
Tenerife North also recorded the greatest improvement. There, the average delay fell once again, from 9 minutes 41 seconds to 7 minutes 58 seconds. The on-time departure rate rose by 2.5 percentage points, from 77.7 per cent to 80.2 per cent. A total of 3,804 departures were analysed.
There was therefore a gap of more than ten minutes between Tenerife’s two airports. The rest of the field fell in between them. However, the frontrunner did have one drawback: with 1.52 per cent of flights cancelled, no other airport had more cancellations. This is also due to the sometimes difficult weather conditions around La Laguna in the north of Tenerife.
The most punctual Canary Islands airports in August
Every single delay counts towards the average deviation. Consequently, even a few extreme outliers can cause it to rise significantly. The rate, on the other hand, indicates how often a departure remained within the tolerance limit. This gives us our overview and ranking:
| Rank | Airport | Average deviation | Rate | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tenerife North (TFN) | 7 minutes 58 seconds late | 80.2 per cent | 3804 |
| 2 | Santa Cruz de La Palma (SPC) | 9 minutes and 18 seconds behind | 78.8 per cent | 1170 |
| 3 | Gran Canaria (LPA) | 13 minutes and 41 seconds late | 70.6 per cent | 5,729 |
| 4 | Lanzarote (ACE) | 15 minutes and 42 seconds late | 66.4 per cent | 3212 |
| 5 | Fuerteventura (FUE) | 16 minutes and 6 seconds late | 66.1 per cent | 2476 |
| 6 | Tenerife South (TFS) | 18 minutes and 12 seconds late | 63.5 per cent | 3,247 |
The editorial team analyses this data month by month, allowing us to track the performance of each airport over the course of the year. According to figures from the Canary Islands Statistical Office (ISTAC), 1,270,848 passengers arrived in the Canary Islands from abroad in July. At 0.3 per cent, this was a slight increase on the same month last year. The data set on which our analysis is based is correspondingly large.
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