Thomas Cook last week admitted that there has been a marked shift in the destinations being chosen for holidays by British holidaymakers, with the Canary Islands being in the top choice for many.  It’s thought this reflects a desire for value for money holidays that are deemed safer than other traditional hotspots such as Egypt and Tunisia.  The short flights to this region also make it easier for holidaymakers to shorten their holiday to 5 nights instead of 7 and 10/11 nights instead of 14, another growing holiday trend.  Thomas Cook’s Summer 2011 holiday bookings are reported to be up by 8% to the Canary Islands so far.

Political unrest in places such as Egypt and Tunisia has made places such as Tenerife, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria more attractive to British tourists, with Tenerife, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura currently enjoying very busy seasons.  May half term holidays are already attracting thousands more holidaymakers than usual – so our advice is to book sooner rather than later!

With many operators offering holiday packages to the Canary Islands and a huge supply of regular direct flights from the UK, holidaymakers are spoilt for choice when booking Canary Island holidays.  Whether it’s the larger more popular islands of Tenerife, Lanzarote or Gran Canaria that take your fancy or perhaps Fuerteventura or La Palma, there are plenty of great value deals to be found at the moment.

Ryanair axed all of its Fuerteventura routes from 31st January this year, however, from March 2010 it will resume services to Bournemouth, Brussels Charleroi, Dublin, Düsseldorf Weeze, Frankfurt Hahn, Glasgow Prestwick, Liverpool, Madrid, Milan Bergamo and Pisa.

The ten routes will deliver 300,000 additional passengers and create 300 new jobs at Fuerteventura.

Ryanair also announced the extension of its Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Tenerife routes to its summer 2010 schedule after the local government confirmed that its airport discount scheme would continue until at least March 2012.

The airline will operate 300 weekly flights on 53 Canary Island routes next summer, carrying over 2.3m passengers.

Ryanair have also announced that it would base a second Boeing 737-800 at Bournemouth from next March and open four new routes to Fuerteventura, Ibiza, Malta and Valencia, taking its total network to 16.

The new routes, together with increased frequencies to Alicante, Malaga and Palma, will increase the airline’s Bournemouth traffic to 650,000 passengers a year.

Ryanair will also base a sixth aircraft at Glasgow Prestwick from next March, which will focus on routes formerly operated by the collapsed flyglobespan to Alicante, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Malaga, Palma and Tenerife.