Canaryfly

If you spot in the Canaries, you see ATR turboprops almost every minute – and almost all of them wear Binter’s titles. All the nicer when an aircraft of Canaryfly swings onto the runway in between. The small airline from Gran Canaria flies a handful of ATR 72s between the islands and is thus something like the David of inter-island traffic. This page shows you who is behind Canaryfly, which aircraft to expect and how to reliably tell them apart from Binter.

Canaryfly at a glance

Canaryfly is a regional airline from the Canary Islands. It is headquartered in a hangar at Gran Canaria Airport. According to reference works, the company was founded in 2008 under the name Canarias Aeronáutica; at first it operated small aircraft, including on connections between the Canaries and Africa. The first route between the islands was added in May 2012.

Canaryfly sees itself as a low-cost airline for inter-island traffic and advertises with the motto of paying less and flying more. This shows mainly in the fares: there are several tiers, and in the cheaper fares bags or seat selection are added as needed. If you live on the islands, you get the state resident discount for domestic flights, as with other airlines.

For all the low-cost language, though, Canaryfly is above all one thing: a classic regional airline. The flights are short, the aircraft have propellers, and departure and arrival are often only half an hour to forty-five minutes apart.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code PM: appears in the flight number, so on the departure board, in the ticket and in the schedules.
• ICAO code CNF: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on flight trackers.
• Callsign CANARY: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio, for example on approach to Gran Canaria.

How IATA and ICAO codes relate is explained in the article on IATA and ICAO codes. And why a different word is heard on the radio than appears on the departure board is covered in the article on the difference between callsign and flight number.

The island network

Canaryfly concentrates fully on traffic between the islands. Six of the eight Canary Islands airports are served:

Airport	IATA	Island	Spotter tip
Gran Canaria	LPA	Gran Canaria	Headquarters and base, where you see Canaryfly most often
Tenerife North	TFN	Tenerife	The island airport; the south is not served by Canaryfly
Lanzarote	ACE	Lanzarote	Runway-side spots at Playa Honda beach
Fuerteventura	FUE	Fuerteventura	Short route to Gran Canaria
La Palma	SPC	La Palma	Smaller airport on the east coast
El Hierro	VDE	El Hierro	Smallest airport in the network

Not in the network are Tenerife South, which is used mainly by leisure airlines from Europe, and La Gomera. Which connections are on the schedule specifically changes with the season. Typical are flights from Gran Canaria to the neighboring islands as well as a few cross connections from Tenerife North, for example to Lanzarote. For a spotting trip the rule is therefore: take a quick look at the current schedule instead of relying on older reports.

The fleet: ATR 72-500 and nothing else

The fleet is small and uniform. Canaryfly flies exclusively the ATR 72-500, officially listed as ATR 72-212A. According to common reference works there are five aircraft (as of 2026) with around 70 seats – a number that can change quickly through leasing. The aircraft already have some years behind them and do not come from new deliveries to Canaryfly.

Type	Period	Seats	Spotter tip
ATR 72-500	current	around 70	Only type in today’s fleet, tracker code AT75
ATR 42-320	about 2011–2016 (historic)	around 48	Shorter sister of the ATR 72, tracker code AT43
Fairchild Swearingen Metro	about 2008–2015 (historic)	19	Slender feeder turboprop from the early days

The history of the fleet shows how Canaryfly has grown: at the beginning were small Fairchild Swearingen Metros with only 19 seats. Later the ATR 42-320 joined before the airline switched entirely to the larger ATR 72. According to reference works, two Dash 8s with Austrian registrations were also in service for Canaryfly in 2014 and 2015. The manufacturer is the French-Italian joint venture ATR from Toulouse.

David versus Goliath: Canaryfly and Binter

If you talk about Canaryfly, you cannot get around Binter Canarias. Binter has been the dominant airline in inter-island traffic since the late 1980s, operates a large fleet of ATR 72-600s and Embraer E195-E2s and serves all eight Canary Islands airports. Add routes to mainland Spain, Madeira, the Azores and West Africa.

Canaryfly plays in a different league. With a handful of aircraft, the airline concentrates on the highest-demand inter-island routes and relies on low entry prices there. For travelers that means choice on the main routes, for spotters a nice contrast: where Binter sets the rhythm with dozens of departures a day, Canaryfly movements are far rarer.

How to recognize Canaryfly

Because both airlines fly ATR 72s, the livery is what decides at the spot. Look for the titles “Canaryfly” on the fuselage – Binter aircraft, in contrast, carry “Binter” in large letters. The registration does not help with the attribution: both airlines fly with Spanish EC- registrations. How registrations are built is explained in the guide Understanding aircraft registrations.

The aircraft version, on the other hand, is hard to tell from the outside. The ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600 have the same basic shape with high wing, T-tail and six-blade propellers; the differences lie mainly in the cockpit and the avionics. You reliably separate the two via the type code on the tracker: AT75 stands for the 72-500, AT76 for the 72-600. You will find detailed instructions on ATRs and other propeller aircraft under Telling turboprops apart.

Spotting Canaryfly in the Canaries

Your best chances are on Gran Canaria. The airline is based here, and most rotations begin and end here. A popular spot is Ojos de Garza beach right next to the runway, where you catch landing aircraft from close range. On Lanzarote, Playa Honda beach offers similarly good conditions – the approaches come in over the water there.

Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Tenerife North are also part of the network. Tenerife North also has a special place in aviation history: the deadliest accident in civil aviation happened here in 1977, which you can read more about in the article on the Tenerife airport disaster. The guide Plane spotting in the Canary Islands offers an overview of all islands and their spots.

For good pictures of turboprops you need a suitable shutter speed so the propellers do not look frozen. How to set that is shown in the article Photographing propellers. In the Canaries it also helps to look at the trade wind: the wind usually comes from a northeasterly direction and determines the runway direction in use. If you want to know the rules for spotters in Spain, first read the article Spotting in Spain.

Common mix-ups

• Taking every ATR in the Canaries for Binter – Canaryfly flies the same basic shape. The titles on the fuselage decide.
• Logging an ATR 72-500 as a 72-600 – from the outside both are almost identical, and the type code AT75 or AT76 on the tracker brings clarity.
• Taking PM for an abbreviation of Palma – PM is Canaryfly’s IATA code and has nothing to do with Mallorca.
• Confusing the codeshare number with the operating airline – a UX number from Air Europa does not mean Air Europa is flying.
• Looking for Canaryfly in Tenerife South – on Tenerife the airline uses only the north airport.
• Taking ATR 42s from old photos for the current fleet – the smaller ATR 42s are history at Canaryfly.

Conclusion

Canaryfly is one of the smaller scheduled airlines you can encounter in Spain – and precisely for that reason a rewarding target. Against market leader Binter the fleet looks tiny, but the few ATR 72-500s connect six islands and bring variety to the everyday turboprop routine of the Canaries. If you note titles, registration and type code together, you will have the fleet in your logbook in no time.