Canary Islands despair as locals rage against £210m airport change - 'we are collapsing'

A proposal to expand airports, heavily used by Brits, is facing a backlash as locals claim the island is collapsing. Bosses announced plans to invest £673million in the Canary Islands' airports to improve their infrastructure and services. Operations at would be extended by an hour, running from 6am until midnight, with around £210million assigned. Approximately £463million has been allocated to modernise the airport on the southern half of the island.

Reports suggest that airport operator AENA would invest £210million to deliver the project. In 2024, British tourists accounted for more than 40% of all international arrivals to the Canaries. A campaigner from Friends of Nature Association of Tenerife (ATAN), who wished to remain anonymous, told the Express: "We already receive 18million tourists per year - more than Australia or Brazil. Every day, our resident population increases by over 500,000 people due to tourism."

They added: "We are in a situation of collapse. Expanding the airport would only make things worse. In fact, we don't even need two airports on the same island.

"The only reason we have them is because of the unsustainable scale of tourism. Our infrastructure is designed as if we were a megacity - and this goes completely against what the UNFCCC and other global frameworks say about mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

"What we urgently need is degrowth, to set clear limits to this development model, and to reclaim the right to live in our territory with dignity and sustainability."

Residents protested against overtourism and the island's government on Sunday. Participants marched with a banner that read in Spanish: "No extension of hours."

It added: "Sustainable airport? Hang your green flag."

An image of a plane flying over the island, whose surface was cracked, was alongside the text.

has approached AENA and Binter Canarias for comment.