The debate on the need and viability of having a Canarian airline began in June 2013 by the president of Ashotel Hotel and CEHAT, Jorge Marichal, during a professional meeting with the media.
The disappearance of Spanair in 2012 continues to highlight the fragility of air connectivity with a decline that carried on until the arrival of Norwegian, who recovered part of the seats lost with the mainland, and ticket prices are adjusted to real demand existing at that time.
Ashotel's main argument was the need to bet on the vertical integration of the business so that the Canary Islands would not have to depend on third parties (mainly tour operators), to attract tourists to the Islands and improve the connectivity of the Canaries as a destination, committed to influencing the value chain from the moment the customer decides to travel until he returns home.
The model that was drawn up was that of a business initiative that had the support of public administrations. At first, they welcomed the employer's proposal, since it would entail a comprehensive management of the tourist destination.
A year later, Ashotel maintained its interest in the creation of the airline and announced that it was already negotiating the involvement of businessman of the tourist sector in Tenerife. The objective was not to compete against the existing operators, but to help channel the demand that they were not going to be able to absorb.
After several years of debate and analysis of proposals, at the end of 2019 negotiations of various operating models began with the Canarian capital airline, One Airways, which registered, at the end of that year, the commercial entity Lattitude Hub SA, during the first semester. Multiple negotiations and analyzes continue to take place, and finally, in June 2020, the project began to take shape in its desire to vertically integrate the tourism business.
It is precisely that month when the Ashotel Assembly approved the constitution of an SL, which will participate in the Lattitude Hub, to give impetus to the project and opens its participation to all businessmen who want to be part of it, although there will finally be about 14 tourism businessmen who, together with One Airways, decide to start the project, the starting point to make it happen. The association and, therefore, all its associates, also participate with a minority contribution.
The Canarian business community considers that it needs to be independent, even more so at this time of world tourism crisis, with a large number of airlines on the verge of bankruptcy, availability of aircraft, and the need to create jobs and seek different solutions to different problems. In post-Covid tourism, air connectivity will also be affected and its recovery will be gradual.
Already the bankruptcy of airlines and tour operators, like Thomas Cook before the pandemic, was a warning. Today, the circumstances may worsen, with which this airline gives the tourism business the ability to manoeuvre for the recovery of low minimum air connectivity.
A few days after the meeting, the entry of Ashotel into the Lattitude Hub became a reality, which will launch the airline under the commercial name of Canarian Airways, of Tenerife business capital but open to other participations.
The project has the participation and aeronautical advice of One Airways, a firm born in 2009 with 100% Canarian capital. In this way, and after more than five years of work, a project that comes to shore up the tourism business muscle of the Islands now begins.
