The discontinuation of the Canarian territory so that the islands could be treated as an archipelago, as well as their remoteness form the rest of the Spanish state, have transformed the Canaries into a location reliant on both air and sea transport, both in terms of travel between the islands themselves and also in order to overcome the barrier offered by the 1 050 kilometres which separate the islands from the Spanish mainland. In the interior of each island, roads are the only method of travel, the establishment of a rail network having never gone beyond the planning stage.
The same geographical situation which makes the Canaries a privileged location for tourism and business, contributes, in its turn, to the increased dependency on ships and planes to the extent that without the existing fluidity in sea and air transport, the Canarian economy would not be able to maintain itself. However, and thanks again to the position that the islands have in the Atlantic, its ports and airports are of strategic importance. The fluidity of sea and air transport is, therefore, assured.
With regard to the roads, factors such as the increase in the Canarian population and the affordable price of vehicles are raising the demand for more kilometres of road and seeking a constant renovation of the existing infrastructures
PORTS
Thanks to the geographical location of The Canary Islands, they have a substantial harbour infrastructure in an extensive network of commercial and fishing ports, together with numerous yachting marinas. The Port Las Palmas and that of Santa Cruz de Tenerife are among the leading ones in Spain in terms of numbers of passengers numbers and goods tonnage handled: in Fac. they are the largest in terms of fuel supply to ships and in tonnage of fish handled. They are fourth in movement of containers and fifth in overall cargo activity, having seen growth of over 10over the last five years.
Some thirty shipping lines connect these two ports to over 380 ports around the world. Their dock facilities are modern and spacious with plenty of capacity for storage and operations. There is a large and growing number of container and Ro-Ro terminals, abundant cold storage capacity and first-class passengers terminals.
AIRPORTS
The Canary Islands have six international airports and two for traffic among the islands. The two largest of the international airports are Gando on Gran Canaria (LPA) and Reina Sofía in the South of Tenerife (TFS). In 2002, they handld about nine million passengers each, and their capacity of over twenty-five million passengers a year with 3,100 x 45 metre runways is undergoing expansion.
Scheduled flights connect the Archipielago to over fifty cities in Europe, Africa and the Americas. In addition, the islands are served by large number of charter flights that add dozens more destinations, typically year-round because of the absence of a real low season for tourism. The Canaries are only two hours´ flights time from the Spanish Mainland, four from the main European airports and six from North America.
AENA Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (Spanish Airports and Aerial Navigation) http://www.aena.es
THE ROAD NETWORK
The Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands has the greatest proportion of "the total network of surface roads" in Spain (0.63%) with a total of 4,296 kilometres of road. The average value of this indicator in the various Autonomous Communities is 0.31%.
