Binter Canarias Tenerife North-La Palma ATR72 Economy

Background

My first trip back to the Canaries post-Covid was to Tenerife, naturally!

Tenerife has two airports, the original airport, formerly known as Tenerife North, Los Rodeos (the latter 'Los Rodeos' being dropped after a terrible accident in the 70s), and the newer Tenerife South Reina Sofia airport.  The North airport now only serves a handful of Spanish mainland destinations as well as a wide range of inter-island flights.  Most of the mainland and tourist flights go into the South airport where the climate is much drier and hotter year-round.  Nevertheless, Tenerife North is a very busy airport.

As a more or less monthly visitor to the Canary Islands, I tend to use Tenerife as a base to explore - often making inter-island trips by the excellent ferry services of both Fred Olsen Express and Armas.  That said, the Canarian Government heavily subsidises air travel between the islands for the sole benefit of island residents.  If you've ever booked a flight with either of the two island-based airlines, Binter Canarias or Canaryfly, at first glance you think "wow, that's cheap", until you click the button that says 'not resident', then the fare literally quadruples.  Whilst that's clearly not ideal for the tourist, it does mean that air travel across the Canary Islands is very popular and well used - which in a way is a good thing for the tourist / non-resident, as a) it keeps ferry travel fares in check and b) it gives a faster option to travel around the islands.

Today's flight is with Binter Canarias, on a French built Aerospatiale ATR72, from Tenerife North airport to neighbouring island, La Palma.  Although both Binter and Canaryfly operate an inter-island fleet of ATR 42 and 72 turboprop aircraft, Binter also operates the larger Embraer 195 jet for direct flights between the Canaries and provincial destinations in mainland Spain.  

Check In

Check in was surprisingly easy.  A lot of smaller airlines, especially island based operators, don't have much by way of online functionality.  With Binter Canarias however, I was able to not only book this flight on  their simple website, but also check in online and obtain my boarding pass.  As usual, I wasn't carrying a checked bag so I had no cause to use the check in desks.

The Lounge

The Sala Nivaria VIP lounge - accessed today with Priority Pass

Tenerife North doesn't have a dedicated lounge for any airline.  It has one third party lounge which serves premium customers of the main airlines that operate here, including Iberia, Air Europa and Binter's own premium travellers (Binter is an all economy airline but sells fully flexible fares, which includes lounge access, amongst other things). 

The lounge here is also open to Priority Pass customers which is how I gained entry.  

An odd thing about flying through Spanish airports is that I'm always welcomed as a Priority Pass customer. I have never yet been turned away.  This is in contrast to UK and US Priority Pass lounges where entry is now the exception and the Priority Pass product itself is rapidly falling out of favour with those countries' customers.

Spain's Priority Pass lounges are usually spacious but to me lack anything other than basic offerings. Today's lounge here at Tenerife North is no exception.  It's basic, doesn't really offer much more than tea/coffee and very basic alcohol, along with really (and I mean, really) basic cold ham or cheese sandwiches.  I ordered both so that I could make a ham AND cheese sandwich (genius!).

Boarding

Boarding was initially a bit of a mess.  At the last minute prior to boarding, the gate was changed without any real explanation and being a fairly full flight seemed to cause a bit of a mess as people weren't clear where to go.  Once the gate staff agreed their differences, boarding was a simple walk from the terminal out to the back of the plane.  The ATR72 aircraft boards and disembarks at the back, as cargo is loaded in the front.  

On today's flight I paid to get a wing seat and it wasn't disappointing.  With the wing being over you, you get not only a good view of the engine (an avgeek thing!), but also a more or less unrestricted view which is great in the Canaries as the volcanic islands are nothing if not fascinating to look at.

The flight

The flight today is a relatively quick 25 minutes and operates up to ten times a day.  This is a very popular flight for residents and with the subsidised price starting from just €10.50, you can understand why.  The ferry services are also subsidised for residents.  Whilst I'm tempted to say the flight is quicker, and time in the air certainly is a lot less than the ferry, but then you've got airport security to think about, as well as the time sat around in airports, the ferry probably isn't that much slower than flying.  You can also carry a lot more with you on the ferry as security is a lot less intrusive.

A real highlight was Binter's inflight entertainment.  There is no wifi, but onboard streamed movies and TV shows.  I chose to watch an episode of the Big Bang theory but didn't even have time to watch that as the episode length was more than the flight!  Having inflight streaming on flights, complimentary, is very welcomed, but when you bear in mind that Binter's average sector length is just 38 minutes, I'm not sure if it's simply a service that costs them a lot to provide and looking around not many people using.

Food and drink

Arrival

Already impressed with Binter's in flight streaming and cookie, there really wasn't much more that they could have done to further my now very positive impression of this 25 minute flight.  

With arrival onto the island of La Palma being a simple affair without any immigration to deal with, I was through the airport terminal and enjoying lunch in the capital town of Santa Cruz de la Palma within 35 minutes of landing.  

Verdict

It's difficult to argue that Binter Canarias provides a superb service on what is, let's not forget, just a 25 minute flight.  The included media streaming and biscuit aren't things that you would normally get on such short journeys.

Both Tenerife North and La Palma airports are easy to use and relatively easy to get to using the airport express buses at both ends.  

With entry fares starting at just €35 including taxes (much less for residents who benefit from government subsidies), it's a really easy and pleasant way to travel around the islands.

Flight Facts