A mixture of nostalgia, regret, claustrophobia, emptiness, and caution in the face of what lies ahead with the reactivation of tourism. This is the prevailing sentiment among the usually quiet drivers of Canarybus, which in 2022 reaches "the crisis" of its 40th year in business, supplying the tourism sector with its sights set on recovery, rising inflation, and shrinking profit margins. The drivers' discipline is the same that has permeated the Díaz Hernández family for these four decades: barely a breath, their eyes never leaving the road. Like TUI, FTI, or Jet2 in Gran Canaria, the pandemic has caught Grupo 1844 off guard as it implements its financial plan, initiated in 2016. This plan included the addition of 50 buses to serve the tourism and regulated services sector, expanding its fleet of 600 transport units and employing just over 1.000 people, who are always undergoing training and whose salaries total 7 million euros. The profit before and after is a minimum of 349.414 euros compared to 1.330.669 euros before Covid-19 for the market volume in question.
On April 20, Grupo 1844 celebrates 40 years since Transportes Antonio Díaz Hernández was founded in a notary in Las Palmas with past experience in leading companies in the sector. The executive at the head of this group on which 1.000 Canarian families depend directly has its headquarters in Agüimes, from where it supplies the tourism sector of Gran Canaria. In Gran Canaria it operates with Canarybus, which is dedicated to the tourism business, employees of companies and schools, and Canary Shuttle, a tourist intermediary, as well as Taller Los Ríos, which is dedicated to the mechanics, repair and maintenance of tourist buses and vehicles in general. There is another company called Crevi, which offers spare parts for commercial vehicles and taxis. The origin of the name Grupo 1844 is from the registration of a bus belonging to the great-grandfather of Óscar Díaz Reyes, manager of the Canarian business group that has a presence in all the useful islands of the Canary Islands. There was no mass tourism, it was for the transportation of milk. Transportes Antonio Díaz Hernández started in Fuerteventura to reach Tenerife and skipped Lanzarote after Gran Canaria and, finally, La Palma.
The pandemic has affected the company due to the blockade of tourism. Although society has been responding to educational centers and the public sector in the midst of an emergency, complying with health protection criteria at all times. But the business of transporting tourists stopped. In the damned year of confinement, the company directed sales as best it could: from 40 million in 2019 to 19 million in 2020. The Ebitda audited by RSM Spain is clear: 1,7 million euros compared to 4,5 million euros of 2019 and debt from 9,1 million euros to 13,5 million euros. But the entire group before the pandemic earned 50 million euros. Canary Tourist Shuttle was left in a financial coma until the business raises its head with tourism: income of 2.310.195 euros in 2020 when in 2019 it was 7.665.925 euros. The company has not stopped and has not been scared by the storm. In 2021, it added three new Stellae units to its fleet, which would add seven vehicles of this type that were acquired from the Castrosua Group in the last two years. 15-meter Stellae bodies on a MAN RR4 EVI frame and a 13-meter Stellae body on a Mercedes OC500 frame. They comply with regulation 107 and regulation 66, as well as school regulations.
