Airlines accused of blocking Canary Islands resident discount

Several airlines have been accused of blocking the option to select the Canary Islands resident discount when booking high-demand flights.

The 75% discount is applicable for residents in the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, and Ceuta and Melilla, appears to be inconsistently applied across a number of high-demand flights with several airlines.

Numerous passengers have complained that the option to apply for the resident discount when booking online has disappeared in some cases, making it impossible to use it.

A Bluesky user published a step-by-step guide to buying a ticket with the discount on a Vueling flight between Lanzarote and Madrid. The user showed that the April 12^th and 19^th flights appear initially; however, they claimed that when they selected the option of the 75% discount both flight options disappear and the message “there are no flights this day, but don’t worry, you have more dates to choose from” appears on screen.

Other instances involving Air Europa & Ryanair have been reported on social media.

I WANT IT NOW

The reports come after the president of the Asociación de Líneas Aéreas (ALA), Javier Gándara, threatened to reduce routes to the subsidised regions after complaining about the alleged delays in payment from compensated residents.

Gándara claimed that they had not received 175 million euros of the transport subsidies from 2024.