The airline Binter Canarias, continuing its promotions of low-cost flights, is offering all its customers the chance to fly to any island in the Canary Islands Archipelago from just 15 euros per sector. The offer of the Bintazo fare in November is a continuation of the fares put on the market in 2005 in July and September.

Those who wish to take advantage of the benefits of this special offer can buy their tickets from 7 to 13 November, for travel between 14 November and 31 January 2006.

Tickets with the Bintazo fare are subject to the following conditions: they will be electronic tickets, issued at the time of purchase; changes to bookings are not permitted.

With this further launching of the Bintazo fare, Europe’s Best Regional Airline wishes to continue to provide its passengers with the opportunity to travel within the islands at a low price.

At 10.20 this Morning Binter Canarias made its inaugural direct flight to Paris. Ninety passengers were farewelled from the Gran Canaria airport, complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony performed by Liliana Portugal, Marketing Manager of Binter Canarias, José Luis Reina, Head of Communications and Noelia Curbelo, Head of Marketing. The passengers were presented with flowers and gifts.

Most of the passengers were couples from Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Tenerife and Gran Canaria. The passenger list also included some foreigners, particularly French citizens. The General Manager of Binter Canarias, Andreas Blass, stated that the occupation of the flight was 60%.

The flight to Paris takes four hours. The return flight is this afternoon at 3.45 pm, with flight occupation the same as on the outbound sector.

Tomorrow sees the inauguration of another of the airline’s regular flights to European destinations – in this case the Italian city of Milan. The flight, which leaves from the Gran Canaria airport at 10.20 am, takes four hours and has an estimated level of occupation of 60%. The return flight will also be in the afternoon, at 3.45 pm.

Binter Canarias flies to Paris on Mondays and Wednesdays, and to Milan on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The European Regions Airline Association (ERA), to which most of Europe’s regional airlines belong, has this year named Binter Canarias the best regional airline in Europe. The award was received at a ceremony in Gothenburg (Sweden) by Andreas Blass, General Manager of Binter. This is the third time that Binter Canarias has been awarded the prestigious and competitive gold award, having previously received this honour in 1991 and 1992.

The decision of the ERA, made after assessing the large number of regional airlines on the Continent, confirms the fact that the great change undergone by Binter Canarias in the last year has been beneficial for the activity of the airline in all respects. Highlights include the renewal of the fleet, the change of image, the complete adaptation to market trends, the ambitious plans for expansion and the maintaining of unchanging levels of regularity and punctuality.

Mr Blass expressed gratitude for the efforts made by the shareholders of the Canary Islands airline in terms of investments. He also stated that the challenges the airline once faced have been overcome, and that the airline now has a solid base from which to carry out its activities, creating its own market niche. “We have shown that we are not afraid of change or of constantly reinventing the company, if in this way our standards of quality and service are improved”, he said.

The General Manager of Binter also highlighted the effort of all the employees of the company, which enables the airline to carry almost three million passengers and to be the leader on a day-to-day basis.

For Binter Canarias the award for Best Regional Airline in Europe shows how the Canary Islands brand has been established from a fresh perspective, with good management, in order to create a new business model.

Throughout the year Binter Canarias will be offering 500,000 low-cost plane tickets, consolidating the promotion of its routes and encouraging passengers to travel within the islands at the lowest price.

The Recordtazo fare, which has been met with great enthusiasm, involves the offer of flights for only 15 Euros. Twenty four thousand seats have been made available throughout the Canary Islands. Tickets can be bought from 16 to 22 May, for travel from 23 May to 30 July.

Binter has also launched a complementary offer to the Recordtazo fare with 62,000 seats at the mini-fare price, with a 30% discount, for May and June.

Binter has taken into consideration the greater passenger demand on the routes connecting Tenerife, Las Palmas, Fuerteventura, La Palma and Lanzarote, in the distribution of the 32,000 mini-fare seats.

The airline Binter Canarias has scheduled extra flights for the period from 27 to 30 May to coincide with the beginning and end of the upcoming long weekend. The sectors for which these flights have been scheduled are for connections between Gran Canaria and the islands of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and La Palma, and between Tenerife and Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, El Hierro and La Palma, in addition to direct flights from Lanzarote-La Palma-Lanzarote and Gran Canaria-Funchal-Gran Canaria.

Due to the great demand for destinations such as Lanzarote, La Palma and Funchal, the airline is scheduling extra flights to allow customers more possibilities for travelling to these sought-after destinations.

For the long weekend at the end of May, the airline has scheduled extra flights to Funchal (Madeira) on 27 and 30 May, in addition to the regular flights operating on Thursdays and Sundays on the Gran Canaria-Funchal-Gran Canaria sector. Direct flights between Lanzarote and La Palma have also been scheduled for the same dates.

In addition to these extra flights, on 6 May Binter increased the number of flights from Tenerife to the island of El Hierro by adding a fourth flight on Fridays, with the aim of providing for the major demand for travel at the start of the weekend.

Binter Canarias is organising courses entitled "Ayúdate a volar" (Helping Yourself to Fly), specially aimed at those who find it impossible to travel by plane due to the high level of anxiety they experience, or for those who, even though they manage to get on a plane, experience a great deal of discomfort during the flight.

A team made up of psychologists and pilots will instruct participants over a period of two days, dealing with techniques to help them overcome their fear. Visits to the Binter Canarias hangar are included, as well as a journey on a scheduled flight. If you would like further information, please send an e-mail (including your telephone number) to the following address: ayudateavolar@bintercanarias.es

With the new launching of the "Recordtazo" fare, the leading Canary Islands airline wishes to continue to offer its customers the chance to fly between the islands at low prices. In this way, this latest offer is in addition to the already well known mini-fares made available in December 2004 and February 2005, when around 90,000 seats were put on sale.

 Binter Canarias was present again this year at FITUR, on this occasion occupying a 36 m2 stand with a modern, uncomplicated design. At the Binter stand visitors were able to try out the new web page, www.binternet.com and see the video made on the presentation of the new cabin crew uniforms. During the fair the company carried out several tasks such as the handing over of the first BinterMás cards and the presentation of the airline’s activities in 2004.

 On Thursday 27 February the first BinterMás cards were presented to the President of the Canary Islands Government and the Director-General of Transport. BinterMás is the new card that the airline of the Canary Islands has brought out for its customers. By using this card, passengers can enjoy a number of benefits and advantages, which include those in relation to bookings and airport check-in as well as other services offered by the companies participating in this new programme from Binter. The airline plans to progressively extend its frequent flyer programme to other companies so that BinterMás will become an attractive product for all its customers.

The President of the Canary Islands Government, Adán Martín, congratulated the airline when he was presented with his card, highlighting the effort made by the company to provide quality services to all its customers.

 At an event held in the Canary Islands stand, Binter Canarias also presented its new web page, www.binternet.com, which will be on line from the second half of February. With the creation of this page Binter has joined the group of airlines allowing customers to make bookings and purchase tickets through Internet.
Andreas Blass, General Manager of Binter, announced the beginning of flights between Las Palmas and El Aaiún from the end of February. These flights will operate on a code share basis with Regional Airlines, and will fly on a daily basis. On Saturdays the aircraft will be a Binter ATR. Blass also announced that the modernisation process of the ATR fleet will be finalised in February, with the arrival of the last of the aircraft purchased by Binter. In this way Binter has become the Canary Islands air transport company with the youngest and most modern fleet.
After announcing the incorporation of the new ATR planes, Binter Canarias made two promotional presentations today in order to commence what the airline considers “a new stage” after the first two years following the sale of the company by Iberia to a group of Canary Islands businesspeople. The BinterMás frequent flyer card is a commitment by the company to attain customer loyalty. The card will give customers priority on waiting lists, as well as rewarding their loyalty.
Finally, Andreas Blass outlined the results of the airline in 2004, during which Binter performed an average of 142 flights a day. The airline carried a total of 2,441,826 passengers, with 3,607,482 seats offered. For the first time ever, ten percent of the seats were special offers, said Blass. Throughout the year, the Binter staff of 414 carried out 50,292 flight operations, representing 24,540 flying hours. At present, Binter has thirteen ATR 72 planes, two 19-seat Beechcrafts and one 170-seat Boeing 737.