The 2027 Carnival season is taking shape, and it starts earlier than this year. Shrove Tuesday falls on 9 February 2027, so the first parades are in mid-February.

Flying between the Canary Islands and the rest of Spain at Christmas or in the summer holidays could get cheaper for islanders, if a proposal in a new draft transport strategy goes ahead.

Ryanair is facing a court challenge that seeks to have its EU operating licence suspended, but anyone booked to fly to or from Lanzarote with the airline can carry on as planned. The court has not made any ruling, and flights are running normally.

The Canary Islands have welcomed slightly fewer foreign tourists so far this year, but those who come are spending more each day. Spain's National Statistics Institute counted 10.26 million international visitors between January and August 2026, 0.46 per cent fewer than a year earlier.

Spain's aviation safety agency, AESA, is looking into an incident at Lanzarote Airport on Monday 28 September, when two passenger jets were on the runway at the same time.

Driving to the Papagayo beaches may need some planning ahead in future. Nueva Canarias has proposed a daily limit of 500 cars for non-residents entering Los Ajaches, the protected area that includes Papagayo, with spaces booked online in advance.

At the moment, visitors pay €3 per vehicle by card at the entrance, while residents of Lanzarote and La Graciosa get in free. Under the proposal, residents would keep free access and the money raised would stay in Los Ajaches.

The pressure on the area is clear from the numbers. More than 103,000 non-resident vehicles went in during 2024, and 58,148 in the first half of 2025. On busy days, 1,200 to 1,500 cars use the dirt tracks, against a current maximum of 2,000. Yaiza council repaired the track to Playa Mujeres in July.

The proposal is expected to go to the Canary Islands Parliament's commission for ecological transition. Nothing has been decided, so the current system stays in place for now.

If you are heading down this winter, go early in the day to beat the busiest hours, or leave the car behind and take one of the catamaran trips to Papagayo from Playa Blanca. There is more on the beaches themselves in our guide to the beaches in Lanzarote.

Visitors to Lanzarote could one day pay a small charge for each night they stay, if a proposal from the political party Nueva Canarias gets off the ground. Nothing has been decided yet, and the idea is part of the party's campaign ahead of the island and regional elections in May 2027.

A group of divers had an unexpected visitor at Punta Tiñosa, just off Puerto del Carmen, when a shark swam past them and carried on its way. Manta Diving Lanzarote shared the footage on Instagram at the end of September, and it was quickly picked up across the island.

Jet2 carried more than two and a half million people to the Canary Islands this year, and around 420,000 of those seats were on summer flights into Lanzarote. In the busiest months that meant roughly 70 Jet2 flights a week landing at the island's airport.

Holidaymakers in Belgium will have more ways to reach Lanzarote in summer 2027, with TUI adding new services to the island as part of its biggest airline-led summer programme so far.