The Tenerife Government hopes its favourable tax regime will attract additional airlines to open new bases on the island in the coming years. The island’s Tenerife South Airport has recently welcomed new operational bases from LCCs Norwegian, Iberia Express and Vueling and revealed talks will shortly take place with two other operators.

Speaking at a press conference to mark the conclusion of this year’s successful Routes Africa air service development forum, Alberto Bernabe, director of tourism for the Cabildo of Tenerife confirmed that discussions with one airline partner is already scheduled for next week.

“We are currently in talks with one domestic [Spanish] and one British carrier to open new bases in Tenerife. We will try to seduce them with our attractive offer and highlight upon the successful strategies that helped deliver our other new base operations,” he said.

Tenerife’s qualities for developing a hub model are clear. As well as our key location, companies enjoy the legal security of the European Union and one of the lowest tax rates in Europe - corporate income tax is just 4 percent compared with 20 percent on average elsewhere in Europe.

The Tenerife Tourism Corporation held 19 meetings during Routes Africa and is confident that like previous events they will directly lead to new air connectivity to the Island. Tenerife has had a direct presence at events since 2011 when it made its first appearance at World Routes at Berlin and has subsequently been attending World and regional events.

“Since 2013 we have added more than 2.5 million seats into the market and thanks to the work done at Routes events added the bases of Norwegian, Iberia Express and Vueling,” said Carlos Alonso, president of the Cabildo of Tenerife.

“We have been able to become active in many new markets by encouraging connectivity, building in traditional markets, but also introducing flights into popular indirect destinations. We have also importantly built our network links through premium brand operators like British Airways, Lufthansa, Aeroflot Russian Airlines and Alitalia,” he added.