Alex Cuenca

🗺 Mundosenior began its new season sales on Wednesday, ahead of Imserso's sales starting October 6-8. The program offers spa stays, cultural circuits in Spain, medium to long-distance travel, beach getaways, and European circuits, with international destination additions like Japan and New York. Technological updates include new portals for customers and agencies, offering payment flexibility. Mundiplan started its sales on September 2, offering national and international destinations from €165 per person, including coastal areas like Benidorm and Almería.

✈️ Vueling and Binter are expanding in the Canary Islands after Ryanair's retreat. Vueling plans nearly 900,000 seats for winter, 11% up from 2024, with 89,000 extra seats in the archipelago. In Santiago, they'll offer 578,000 seats in winter 2025, 15% more than last winter. Binter introduces direct flights to Seville from December 1, with 10 weekly flights. Iberia Express adds 30,000 seats, focusing on Tenerife Norte and Gran Canaria. Wizz Air offers 1 million seats across three Canary Islands.

✈️ Ryanair plans to reduce operations in the Canary Islands in 2024 due to a €1,000 million debt by the Spanish government related to resident discounts in Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla. The debt is unpaid despite a frozen budget of €560 million since 2023. In April 2025, €319 million was paid, but the government disputes the total debt, estimating it at €300 million. Ministers criticized Ryanair's move, while the opposition party calls for policy changes to maintain airport competitiveness.

🚂 Renfe saved €79 million in refunds over summer 2024 as 2 million AVE and long-distance travelers went without compensation due to delays. From June to August, 40% of high-speed trains were late. A policy change in July increased the delay required for compensation to over 60 minutes for partial and 90 minutes for full refunds. Consequently, only 444,000 passengers were eligible for compensation, versus 2.5 million previously. Minister Óscar Puente announced 400 new trains by 2028.

🚧 On September 7, 2025, in Palmanova, activists vandalized a hotel pool belonging to the Israeli-owned Leonardo chain by throwing red ink to resemble blood. The protest aimed to highlight alleged colonial and imperialist activities. The activists accused the hotel chain of funding and whitewashing genocide, and reinforcing colonial control in Palestine. They cited examples like conferences by the Israeli embassy and free stays for soldiers, mentioning over 35,000 affected Palestinian minors.