Review of Binter Canarias flight Tenerife Island → Gran Canaria Island in Economy

I went on a 30-day trip in December 2022 and January 2023 to leave the Icelandic winter behind me for some time. The trip had four main parts: visiting Sudan and Kenya; visiting friends, colleagues and relatives in Hungary and the Czech Republic; a family holiday in Tenerife and a business trip to Senegal, The Gambia and Sierra Leone.

I had a total of 18 flights, booked mostly as one-ways and one double open-jaw. Here’s my final list of flights after many cancellations, changes of departure time and aircraft type:

Keflavík to Paris CDG, Icelandair, economy class, B757 (no flight report)
Paris to Istanbul, Turkish, business class, A321
Istanbul to Khartoum, Turkish, business class, B737
Khartoum to Addis, Ethiopian, economy class upgraded to business class, B737
Addis to Nairobi NBO, Ethiopian, economy class upgraded to business class, B777
Nairobi WIL to Mombasa to Lamu, Skyward Express, economy class, Q300
Lamu to Malindi to Nairobi WIL, Safarilink, economy class, Q200
Nairobi NBO to Istanbul, Turkish, business class, A330
Istanbul to Budapest, Turkish, business class, B737
Vienna to Tenerife South, Wizzair, economy class, A321
Tenerife North to Gran Canaria, Binter Canarias, economy class, ATR42
Grand Canaria to Dakar, Binter Canarias, economy class, E195
Dakar to Banjul, Air Sénégal, economy class, A320
Banjul to Freetown, Air Sénégal, economy class, A320
Freetown to Banjul, Air Sénégal, economy class, A320
Banjul to Casablanca, Royal Air Maroc, business class, B737
Casablanca to Paris ORY, Royal Air Maroc, business class, B787
Paris CDG to Keflavík, Play, economy class, A321 (no flight report).

I was going from Tenerife to Senegal. Did you know that Tenerife is closer to Dakar than to Madrid? The shortest way for me was to fly with Binter first to Grand Canaria (only 112 kms away) and then south to Dakar (another 1479 kms). The flight was expensive for the distance. All other options (flying Iberia via Madrid, TAP via Lisbon or Royal Air Maroc via Casablanca) would have meant a long detour.

Tenerife has two airports. Tenerife South serves mostly the tourism industry while Tenerife North is mostly for the local population. The distance between the two is about an hour by taxi depending on traffic.

I took a taxi from my hotel in Santa Cruz to the Tenerife North Airport. I was dropped off at the arrival level from where I went up to departures.  

Tenerife North has many flights, mostly to other islands in the Canaries and to mainland Spain. There are about 18 flights a day from Tenerife to Grand Canaria, most of them by Binter. 

Two check-in desks were open.

 Boarding passes were quickly checked by the automatic gate. Security control was also quick.

I turned right here.

Tenerife North Airport does not have a lot of services airside. This was the only place to buy some food. The employee serving me was friendly but didn’t speak English.

The terminal was quite empty so late in the evening.

My gate.

Boarding was supposed to start at 20.30 but nothing happened. Departure was shown at 21.10 instead of 21.00 but there was otherwise absolutely zero information. No information neither at 21.00 or at 21.10. All other passengers were waiting patiently – they seemed to be used to delays. Boarding finally started at 21.25 with a delay of 55 minutes – departure time was still shown as 21.10 on the screen.

My seat was changed from 11C to 15F at the gate.

Our plane was an ATR72-600, registration number EC-NJK, less than three years old. 

Boarding was from the back as always on ATRs. The cabin was in good condition.

Legroom was OK.

The flight was quite full. There were two dogs onboard who let everybody know very loudly that they were not happy to be there.

Push-back was at 21.53 for a scheduled departure time of 21.00. Take-off was at 21.58 from runway 30.

This was a very short flight. There was an onboard magazine in Spanish only. There was no service during the flight. It was dark outside so not much could be seen.

We landed at Gran Canaria Airport at 22.28 and were at the gate at 22.30 for a scheduled arrival time of 21.30, exactly an hour behind schedule.

A small chocolate was offered as we were leaving the aircraft.  

I rushed to my connecting flight to Dakar – see my next flight report.