{"id":1035,"date":"2025-04-17T10:04:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T10:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2025-04-22T12:00:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T12:00:40","slug":"last-direct-route-from-london-to-spanish-tourist-hotspot-axed-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/17\/last-direct-route-from-london-to-spanish-tourist-hotspot-axed-for-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Last direct route from London to Spanish tourist hotspot axed for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"Aerial\t<\/div>
Gran Canaria is a popular destination for Brits (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a blow to UK holidaymakers, Vueling is planning to axe two direct routes connecting London<\/a> with popular tourist destinations in Spain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to data from aviation analytics company\u00a0Cirium, the airline is set to scrap its direct flights from London Gatwick Airport<\/a> to both Gran Canaria<\/a> Airport and Granada Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca Airport from July.<\/p>\n

Vueling previously offered three and two weekly flights to each destination, respectively.<\/p>\n

Following the change, there will be no direct route to Granada<\/a> from any of the capital\u2019s airports, although change-free flights will be available to Gran Canaria<\/a> via Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, and Stansted on airlines like British Airways<\/a>, EasyJet<\/a>, Jet2<\/a>, Ryanair<\/a>, and TUI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The nearest alternative airports with direct connections are Malaga<\/a> and Seville.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Vueling\t<\/div>
Vueling is set to increase its capacity on other routes. (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Figures show Spain was the number one destination for UK travellers<\/a> in recent years, with over 17.8 million Brits visiting<\/a> in 2023 (accounting for 21% of all visits abroad).<\/p>\n

Canarian Weekly<\/a> reports that around 6.25 million British tourists visited Gran Canaria specifically that year (which subsequently increased by around half a million in 2024).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Granada welcomes nearly 3 million tourists annually, according to Civitatis Granada<\/a> \u2013 but how many of those are from the UK is unclear.<\/p>\n

Vueling\u2019s new UK flight routes for summer 2025<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s not all bad news, as Vueling also announced it will add new destinations to its network for summer 2025, along with expanding capacity to other popular locations.<\/p>\n

A total of 19 additional weekly flights from Spain to the UK will operate from July, including two new routes; Bilbao to London Heathrow and London Heathrow to Santiago de Compostela.<\/p>\n

This means an extra 3,183 weekly seats for passengers heading off on their holidays, around 10% more than last year according to Cirium\u2019s Diio Mi tool. <\/p>\n

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Comment now<\/title><span class=\"metro-comment-cta__text\">How do you feel about Vueling axing these direct routes to Spain?<\/span><\/span><a class=\"metro-comment-cta__button\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\">Comment Now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>Plus, the low-cost carrier will increase the frequency of flights from Edinburgh to Barcelona, London Gatwick to Alicante, and London Gatwick to Seville, in an effort to meet the demand for Spanish getaways.<\/p>\n<p>The likes of Ryanair,\u00a0EasyJet, and Jet2 are among those doing the same, adding a respective 90, 50, and 55 weekly flights from the UK to Spain to their timetables and creating a total of 41,597 additional seats.<\/p>\n<p>Vueling, which operates in more than 90 destinations across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, carried around 36.8 million passengers in total in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>It currently serves six\u00a0UK airports \u2013 London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Edinburgh \u2013 with fares starting from \u00a318 each way.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Metro has approached Vueling for comment<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\" data-ico=\"factbox_article\" data-track-module=\"factbox_article\">\n<h2 class=\"factbox-title\">\n\t\t\t\tExplore lesser-known Spain’s gems with Metro\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"factbox-content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/03\/21\/5-lesser-known-spain-destinations-tourists-hardly-ever-visit-22769610\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/03\/21\/5-lesser-known-spain-destinations-tourists-hardly-ever-visit-22769610\/\">The 5 best lesser-known Spain destinations that tourists hardly ever visit<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/03\/22\/idyllic-spanish-town-17km-coastline-a-hidden-gem-22-c-april-22741566\/\">\u2018Idyllic\u2019 Spanish town with 17km coastline is a hidden gem that\u2019s 22\u00b0C in April<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/06\/sunniest-city-europe-underrated-gem-can-fly-50-22856878\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/06\/sunniest-city-europe-underrated-gem-can-fly-50-22856878\/\">The sunniest city in Europe is an \u2018underrated gem\u2019 \u2014 and you can fly there for \u00a350<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/02\/08\/visited-this-lesser-known-european-gem-spent-just-300-a-week-3-22517732\/\">I visited this lesser-known Spanish city and spent just \u00a3300 in a week<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/03\/11\/santorini-spain-a-lesser-known-gem-21-c-april-22681612\/\">The \u2018Santorini of Spain\u2019 is a lesser-known gem that\u2019s 21\u00b0C in April<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Do you have a story to share?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Get in touch by emailing <a href=\"mailto:MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk\">MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gran Canaria is a popular destination for Brits (Picture: Getty Images) In a blow to UK holidaymakers, Vueling is planning to axe two direct routes connecting London with popular tourist destinations in Spain. According to data from aviation analytics company\u00a0Cirium, the airline is set to scrap its direct flights from London Gatwick Airport to both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1040,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions\/1040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}