Fuerteventura News & Things Worth Knowing

Flights: two new UK routes for the winter season

From 13 December 2026, British Airways operates a direct scheduled service between Fuerteventura and London Heathrow (Terminal 5) — a first in the island's history, and a genuine scheduled route rather than a seasonal charter. Flight BA413 runs twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays, through to 11 April 2027, replacing the airline's previous Gatwick service.

The switch from Gatwick to Heathrow matters more than it sounds. It plugs the island into a global hub, which changes the picture for anyone connecting from North America, Asia or a UK regional airport, and it puts Fuerteventura on the same footing as the Canary destinations that have long had a Heathrow link. For a direct flight to Fuerteventura from London, it is the option to check first for winter 2026-2027.

Further north, easyJet opens a new seasonal route between Newcastle and Fuerteventura from 25 October 2026, operating twice a week as part of the expansion of its new base at Newcastle airport. That is one more northern English city with a direct winter link to the island, and one less reason to drive south to Manchester or fly via a Spanish hub.

Rules: a first legal framework in the pipeline for campervans

In late July 2026, the Canary Islands government sent a draft decree to its advisory council covering the archipelago's open-air accommodation: campsites, motorhome areas and similar sites. It is a draft, not a law — the text is still working its way through the administrative process and has not come into force. Until it is published, the current rules apply: parking is free wherever a car may park, and camping outside the few designated areas is banned.

The text does show the direction of travel for campervan rules in the Canary Islands. As drafted, it would explicitly ban free camping for tourism purposes, cap stays on any single motorhome area at six months, and set out across eighteen articles the conditions — available surface area, compulsory services — required to open a site.

For anyone planning a van trip this winter, the practical consequence is straightforward: nothing changes right now, but the idea of an archipelago where you can pull up anywhere is already history and will soon be so in writing. The part worth watching is not the ban, which is broadly enforced already, but the licensing side of the text: that is what will determine whether the number of official service areas, currently very low in Fuerteventura, eventually grows.

Something more immediate is arriving from Madrid. Spain's traffic authority, the DGT, has issued an instruction referenced PROT 2026/04 that takes effect on 1 October 2026 and finally puts objective wording on the parking-versus-camping question that this section has always had to describe in practice. A vehicle is parked if nothing is deployed outside it, if it sits on its tyres rather than on levelling jacks, and if no fluid is emptied onto the ground; fail any of those and it is camping. It also confirms that a council may not ban motorhomes as a category, only restrict by height, length or weight, and creates a new sign, the S-128, for authorised wastewater dump points.

At island level, a separate development is worth flagging with care. In mid-August 2026, the president of the Fuerteventura Cabildo, Lola García, said the island could no longer absorb rising motorhome pressure without regard to its real capacity, and that a quota — annual or restricted to the busiest months — was under study, together with a prior-authorisation step requiring visitors to declare their vehicle's entry and exit dates; residents would be excluded. The Cabildo is also drafting an island-wide provisional ordinance on camping and motorhome areas, in discussion with the municipalities. Nothing has been voted, no figure has been attached to the quota and no start date has been given, so this changes nothing for a trip booked today — but it is the item on this page most likely to move next.

Budget: still no tourist tax in Fuerteventura

It is one of the most common questions before departure, and the answer has not changed: there is no tourist tax in Fuerteventura, or anywhere else in the Canary Islands, at the time of writing. The regional government has ruled the option out of its programme. Nothing is added to your hotel bill, unlike Barcelona, the Balearics and much of the Mediterranean.

One nuance is worth knowing, because it is regularly mistaken for a general tourist levy: Tenerife's island council has confirmed an eco-fee from 2026 for non-resident visitors entering Teide National Park. It is a charge for access to one specific natural site, on a different island, and it does not apply to Fuerteventura.

The wider debate remains open across the archipelago: the idea of a tourist contribution comes back regularly in the Canarian press, and the Teide example shows that a targeted measure can move faster than a general tax. This is the page to check before you finalise a budget.

That debate has in fact been settled for now, and in a direction English-language headlines rarely report. Since July 2026 the Canary Islands government has been running RegNext, the Canary Islands Tourism Regeneration and Nature Restoration Fund: travellers, tourism businesses and organisations can donate online, voluntarily, towards biodiversity conservation, habitat restoration, climate adaptation and affordable housing across the seven islands. Nobody is charged on arrival and nothing appears on a hotel bill. Government spokesperson Alfonso Cabello and tourism minister Jéssica de León have both confirmed that the regional executive has ruled out a compulsory archipelago-wide tax, which would have fallen on residents too, in favour of this voluntary route.

Two things not to confuse with it: the Teide charge described above, which is site access on another island, and isolated municipal projects. La Oliva, here in Fuerteventura, has floated its own local tourist tax, but that scheme is stalled and nothing is being collected. So if you read that the Canary Islands have introduced a tourist tax, the accurate version is narrower: no compulsory levy, one voluntary fund, and a couple of site-specific access fees.

Nature: an access fee in the works for Cofete, Corralejo and Ajuy

The Fuerteventura Cabildo is preparing an access fee for several of the island's protected natural areas from summer 2026: Cofete beach, the Corralejo dunes and the Ajuy caves. The measure is part of management plans currently being drawn up for these sites. As of mid-August 2026, neither the final amount nor the start date had been set.

This fee is separate from the tourist tax discussed above: it doesn't apply to accommodation, but to access to specific natural sites, along the lines of the scheme being introduced at Teide National Park on Tenerife. We're tracking this and will update this page, as well as our Beaches and Car hire pages, once the fee is published.

Dining: Fuerteventura is back in the Michelin Guide

In July 2026, El Pellizco, in Costa Calma, entered the Michelin Guide's "new additions" selection. It marks Fuerteventura's return to the guide after a decade with no listed address on the island. The restaurant is run by chef-owner Rigoberto Almeida and serves Cuban-Canarian fusion cooking.

The news matters beyond one address. Fuerteventura carries a reputation as an island of beaches and all-inclusive packages, rarely mentioned for its food, unlike Tenerife or Lanzarote. A Michelin listing — in a southern resort town, no less — changes how the island can be pitched to a traveller still weighing it up, and gives something concrete to those who also book for the table.

How this page is kept up to date

This page is a local press review: every week we read the Canarian newspapers and news sites, alongside official channels (the regional government, the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, airports, ferry operators), to pull out what actually matters to a traveller, beyond the local news that doesn't concern you.

Only facts confirmed by several outlets or by an official source, and that stay valid for months, make it onto this page: a new route, a change in the rules, a tax, a distinction, a site opening or closing. The last-reviewed date shown on this page tells you when this press review was last done.

Explore further

Each fact summarised above is covered in full in the matching section of the guide: