Tenerife fights to keep crucial Air Tractor firefighting plane

Tenerife is moving to prevent the Canary Islands from losing the only fixed-wing aircraft available in the archipelago for fighting wildfires, and the sole aerial resource capable of applying long-lasting chemical retardants. The Air Tractor AT-802, based on La Gomera, is a key tool for slowing the spread of flames before they reach populated areas, critical infrastructure or hard-to-access natural spaces.

The strategic importance of the Air Tractor

Included in the 2026 firefighting campaign, the aircraft is considered a strategic asset for its rapid response time and operational characteristics. Unlike helicopters, this amphibious plane can make direct water drops onto flames. Critically, it can also create chemical control lines using polyphosphates, a technique that helps anticipate the fire’s advance and improves safety for ground crews.

The debate comes before the Cabildo (island council) at a time of growing forest fire risk for Tenerife and the wider Canary Islands. Rising temperatures, prolonged droughts and the abandonment of rural areas have increased the threat of major fires, particularly in urban-forest interface zones, where flames can quickly advance towards homes, roads, power lines and other essential services.

Tenerife still has vivid memories of the major forest fire that started in Arafo in 2023, which forced thousands of people to evacuate within hours and highlighted the difficulty of containing such emergencies with only ground resources or limited aerial support. That emergency turned wildfire fighting into a direct civil protection issue, not merely one of conserving woodland.

Island rivalry or a shared risk?

According to the motion to be debated by the island corporation on Friday, at the last Infoca (Wildfire Coordinating Committee) meeting it was communicated that the aircraft provided by the state would be replaced by a helicopter, at the request of the Cabildo of La Gomera, which considers the latter more suitable for that island’s geography. The motion warns, however, that the Air Tractor serves the entire archipelago, so its removal would mean losing a unique capability for all the islands, including Tenerife.

The island spokesman for forest firefighters in the FSC-CCOO union—a forest firefighter and chainsaw operator for the Cabildo of Tenerife—Elesbaan Perera López, says that in the Canary Islands, due to the terrain, “we have always defended and will always defend helicopters” because they are more manoeuvrable for entering ravines or other tricky spaces where a Tractor needs more space and a clear area to operate. But recent fires have shown the need for these amphibious aircraft because “getting the water bombers from the mainland takes a long time.” For this reason, he adds, “we should not rule out the use of this aircraft” based on La Gomera because “there are many places on the island where its drops are very effective.”

No dichotomy between helicopter and plane

Perera does not see this as an either-or choice between helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, but considers both “necessary.” Helicopters can drop water exactly “where we want,” precisely when ground crews are working, thanks to their greater accuracy and manoeuvrability—for example, inside a ravine “where the plane cannot go.” However, he explains, “in other natural spaces, the plane is very effective.” He concludes: “My opinion is that the more resources we have and the closer they are, the better.”

He speaks from nearly three decades of experience protecting the Canarian countryside, and also advocates for professionalising the public sector to face catastrophes like the one almost three years ago.

What Tenerife demands from Madrid

The initiative being debated in the full council on Friday calls on the Spanish government to maintain an aircraft of this type in the Canary Islands and to reinforce the firefighting system. In this regard, it proposes that if La Gomera needs an additional helicopter, it should be incorporated without removing the Air Tractor. The motion also asks the state to increase the air resources allocated to the Canary Islands’ firefighting campaign, taking into account the archipelago’s geographic dispersal, the distance between islands, the volume of the population living near forested areas and the need to act quickly on outbreaks to prevent them from escalating into major fires like the one Tenerife suffered in 2023.

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Tenerife fights to keep crucial Air Tractor firefighting plane