Tenerife North Airport

Tenerife North Airport Aeropuerto de Tenerife Norte
New International Terminal
IATA: TFN – ICAO: GCXO TFN Location of airport in Canary Islands
Summary
Airport type		Public
Owner		Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea
Operator		Aena
Serves		Tenerife
Location		San Cristóbal de La Laguna
Elevation AMSL		633 m / 2,077 ft
Coordinates		28°28′58″N 016°20′30″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
12/30	3,394	11,135	Asphalt
Statistics (2011)
Passengers			4,095,103
Passenger change 10-11			1.01%
Aircraft Movements			62,590
Movements change 10-11			0.3%
Source: Statistics from AENA Spanish AIP at EUROCONTROL

Tenerife North Airport (IATA: TFN, ICAO: GCXO), formerly Los Rodeos Airport, is one of the two international airports on the island of Tenerife, Spain. It is located in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, 11 km (6.8 mi) by road from Santa Cruz and at an altitude of 633 metres (2,077 ft). In 1977, the airport was the site of the worst accident in aviation history when 583 passengers and crew were killed after two Boeing 747s collided on the runway in heavy fog. Both planes exploded and started fires, and were completely destroyed.

Tenerife North handled 4,095,103 passengers in 2011. Combined with Tenerife South Airport, the island gathers the highest passenger movement in the Canary Islands with 12,751,583 passengers. The busiest air route from the airport in terms of passengers is the one to Madrid Airport, at over one million passengers a year.

Today TFN is an inter-island hub connecting all seven Canary Islands with connections to the Iberian Peninsula, Europe, and North America. The route between Tenerife North and Madrid-Barajas is the airport's busiest with an average of 40 flights per day.

Buildings

Map of Los Rodeos Airport

A new terminal was inaugurated in 2002, comprising car park, motorway access ramps, and four-story terminal building, with 12 gates. The airport regained its international status when flights to Caracas began. An inter-island domestic area was opened in 2005.

History

Many years before the airport had even been built, the field at Los Rodeos was hastily prepared to accommodate the first (though unofficial) flight into Tenerife operated by an Arado VI (D-1594) aircraft operating from Berlin on behalf of Deutsche Luft Hansa.

In May 1930, the Compañía de Líneas Aéreas Subvencionadas S.A. (C.L.A.S.S.A.) established the first air link between the Spanish mainland and the Canary Islands using a Ford 4-AT Trimotor (M-CKKA), which took off from Getafe, Madrid to the Los Rodeos field via Casablanca, Cape Juby and Gando in Gran Canaria.

After the final location of the airport had been decided, funds were gathered between 1935 and 1939 to build a small hangar and begin expanding the airstrip which would become Los Rodeos .

In July 1936 Francisco Franco did not fly from here after taking over the island to invade the mainland Spain. He flew from Gando (Gran Canaria), in a DH-89 Dragon Rapide chartered to the British company Olley Air Service.

Inter island aircraft

Operations into Los Rodeos recommenced on 23 January 1941 with a De Havilland DH89A Dragon Rapide operating an Iberia flight from Gando in Gran Canaria.

By 1946, more hangars, a passenger terminal and an 800 m (2,625 ft) paved runway had been built, and the airport was officially opened to all national and international traffic. The runway was stretched at various times during the 1940s and 1950s, reaching a length of 2,400 m (7,874 ft) in 1953, by which time the airport was also equipped with runway edge lighting and an air-ground radio, enabling night operations.

By 1964, runway 12/30 had been stretched to 3,000 m (9,843 ft) to accommodate the DC-8, new navigation aids were installed, and the apron was expanded to provide more parking spaces for aircraft. In 1971, with the prospect of the Boeing 747 flying into the airport, the runway was reinforced and an ILS (Instrument Landing System) was installed.

In the 1977 Tenerife disaster, a PanAm and a KLM Boeing 747 collided on the runway, killing 583 people, the highest number of fatalities (excluding ground fatalities) of any single accident in aviation history. In response, a new airport, Tenerife South Airport, was inaugurated on November 6, 1978. It is situated at sea level which averts the occurrence of fog, one of the reasons for the crash.

Airlines and destinations

Green scenery at Tenerife North, and a Boeing 747 awaiting passengers.

Airlines	Destinations
Air Europa	Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Málaga, Seville Seasonal: Caracas
Binter Canarias & NAYSA	El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, La Palma, Lanzarote
Iberia	Madrid Seasonal: Paris-Orly
Iberia operated by Air Nostrum	Seasonal: Alicante, Santiago de Compostela, Valencia
Ryanair	Barcelona, Madrid
SBA Airlines	Caracas
Vueling	A Coruña (begins 29 October 2013), Barcelona, Bilbao, Málaga, Seville

Statistics

Tenerife North Airport Passenger Totals 2000-2011 (millions)

Updated: 27 January 2012.

	Passengers	Aircraft movements	Cargo (tonnes)
2000	2,411,100	48,902	22,462
2001	2,511,277	49,132	21,060
2002	2,486,227	48,785	21,148
2003	2,919,087	53,718	23,842
2004	3,368,988	56,592	23,647
2005	3,754,513	60,235	22,163
2006	4,025,601	65,297	23,193
2007	4,125,131	65,843	25,169
2008	4,236,615	67,800	20,781
2009	4,054,147	62,776	18,304
2010	4,051,155	61,607	15,918
2011	4,095,103	62,590	15,745
Source: Aena Statistics

Accidents and incidents

Tenerife North Airport was the scene of the Tenerife airport disaster, to date the worst accident in aviation history. The accident took place on 27 March 1977, while during take-off, the KLM Flight 4805 Boeing 747 crashed into the Boeing 747 of Pan Am Flight 1736 taxiing along the runway. Amongst the passengers and crew of the two aircraft, all 248 passengers on board the KLM flight were killed along with 335 onboard the Pan Am but in the Pan Am flight 61 passengers survived, making the total death toll at 538 passengers. Neither flight was originally scheduled to be at the airport; both were scheduled to land at Gran Canaria Airport, but had been diverted to Tenerife North (then Tenerife Los Rodeos) as a result of a bombing at Gran Canaria.

Other accidents at the airport include:

Date	Airline	Aircraft type	Registration	Flight number	People on board	Fatalities
1965-05-05	Iberia	Lockheed L-1049G	EC-AIN	401	49	30
1965-12-07	Spantax	Douglas DC-3	EC-ARZ		32	32
1970-01-05	Iberia	Fokker F-27 Friendship 600	EC-BOD		49	0
1972-12-03	Spantax	Convair CV-990	EC-BZR		155	155
1980-04-25	Dan-Air	Boeing 727-46	G-BDAN	1008	146	146

External links

• Official website (English) (Spanish)
• Airlines Pilot Association (ALPA) Article on 1977 KLM-PanAm disaster