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Tenerife North Ciudad de La Laguna Airport Aeropuerto de Tenerife Norte Ciudad de La Laguna | |||||||||||||
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 Tenerife North Airport in 2013 | |||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||
| Owner/Operator | AENA | ||||||||||||
| Serves | Santa Cruz de Tenerife,Tenerife | ||||||||||||
| Location | San Cristóbal de La Laguna | ||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 633 m / 2,077 ft | ||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 28°28′58″N016°20′30″W / 28.48278°N 16.34167°W /28.48278; -16.34167 | ||||||||||||
| Website | aena.es | ||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||
  TFN Location of airport in Canary Islands | |||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2024) | |||||||||||||
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| Source: Statistics from AENA[1][1] SpanishAIP atEUROCONTROL | |||||||||||||
Tenerife North–Ciudad de La Laguna Airport (IATA:TFN,ICAO:GCXO), formerlyLos Rodeos Airport, is the smaller of the twointernational airports on the island ofTenerife,Spain. It is located inSan Cristóbal de La Laguna, 11 km (7 mi) by road fromSanta Cruz and at an elevation of 633 metres (2,077 ft). It handled 6,120,550 passengers in 2023. Combined withTenerife South Airport, the island gathers the highest passenger movement of all theCanary Islands, with 18,457,794 passengers,[1] surpassingGran Canaria Airport. Today TFN is an inter-islandhub connecting all seven of the main Canary Islands with connections to theIberian Peninsula andEurope.
In 1977, the airport was the infamous site of thedeadliest accident in aviation history, when twoBoeing 747s collided on the runway in heavy fog conditions, causing the deaths of 583 passengers and crew.
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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 anArado V I (D-1594) aircraft operating fromBerlin on behalf ofDeutsche 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 aFord 4-AT Trimotor (M-CKKA), which took off fromGetafe, Madrid to the Los Rodeos field viaCasablanca,Cape Juby and Gando inGran 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.
Operations into Los Rodeos recommenced on 23 January 1941 with aDe Havilland DH89A Dragon Rapide operating anIberia 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 theDC-8, newnavigation aids were installed, and the apron was expanded to provide more parking spaces for aircraft. In 1971, with the prospect of theBoeing 747 flying into the airport, the runway was reinforced and anILS (Instrument Landing System) was installed.[citation needed]
On December 3, 1972,Spantax Flight 275 crashed during take-off, killing everyone on board.
A new airport,Tenerife South Airport, was inaugurated on 6 November 1978. It was built because Tenerife North is very often covered with thick fog, and this was impacting safety, as shown by theTenerife airport disaster, in which visibility was a contributing factor.[2]
On 25 April 1980,Dan-Air Flight 1008Boeing 727 crashed near the airport, killing all 146 on board, in acontrolled flight into terrain accident.
A new terminal was opened at Tenerife North Airport in 2002, comprising car park, motorway access ramps, and four-story terminal building, with 12 gates, reopening the airport to international traffic. Until this point, the airport had been closed to international flights ever since Tenerife South had opened in 1978.[2] In February 2003,Santa Bárbara Airlines transferred its Caracas service from Reina Sofía Airport to Tenerife North.[3] An inter-island domestic area was opened in 2005.[citation needed]
In June 2009,Air Europa introduced a route to Miami using Airbus A330s.[4] The service was supposed to end in October 2009, but high demand convinced the airline to shift the end date to January 2010. Air Europa then decided to continue flying to Miami on a seasonal basis. The flight resumed in June 2010; however, the carrier discontinued it four months later.[5][6] Amid economic problems in Venezuela, SBA Airlines, formerly known as Santa Bárbara Airlines, terminated its flights to Caracas in February 2014.[3] In June 2018,Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas began flying the same route with Airbus A340s.[7]
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Tenerife North:[8]
| 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 |
| 2012 | 3,717,944 | 55,789 | 14,778 |
| 2013 | 3,524,470 | 49,289 | 13,493 |
| 2014 | 3,633,030 | 52,694 | 13,991 |
| 2015 | 3,815,315 | 53,259 | 12,819 |
| 2016 | 4,219,633 | 55,669 | 12,426 |
| 2017 | 4,704,863 | 61,098 | 13,044 |
| 2018 | 5,492,324 | 73,236 | 12,689 |
| 2019 | 5,840,483 | 75,385 | 12,596 |
| 2020 | 2,795,952 | 46,100 | 9,643 |
| 2021 | 3,840,160 | 54,581 | 11,884 |
| 2022 | 5,566,245 | 68,988 | 13,165 |
| 2023 | 6,120,550 | 75,194 | 11,561 |
| Source:AENA[27] | |||
| Rank | Destination | Passengers | Change 2022 / 23 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Lisbon | 22,893 |  25% |
| 2 |  Caracas | 18,315 | 1382% |
| 3 | Funchal | 12,940 | 10% |
| 4 |  Sofia | 1,871 |  New Route |
| 5 |  Marrakech | 1,250 | 23% |
| Source:Estadísticas de tráfico aereo[28] | |||
| Rank | Destination | Passengers | Change 2022 / 23 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Madrid | 1,413,257 | 10% |
| 2 |  Gran Canaria | 901,145 | 14% |
| 3 | La Palma | 689,808 | 9% |
| 4 |  Barcelona | 628,727 | 9% |
| 5 | Lanzarote | 405,579 | 5% |
| 6 | Fuerteventura | 323,699 | 7% |
| 7 |  Seville | 312,848 | 14% |
| 8 | El Hierro | 235,804 | 9% |
| 9 | Málaga | 210,362 | 18% |
| 10 |  Bilbao | 190,789 | 6% |
| 11 |  Valencia | 157,147 | 24% |
| 12 |  Santiago de Compostela | 119,225 | 23% |
| 13 | Alicante | 103,390 | 1% |
| 14 |  Asturias | 89,509 | 13% |
| 15 | La Gomera | 58,194 |  4% |
| 16 |  Zaragoza | 51,940 | 4% |
| 17 |  Palma de Mallorca | 46,973 | 18% |
| 18 | Vigo | 39,739 | 9% |
| 19 | Granada | 34,844 | 11% |
| 20 | Jerez de la Frontera | 20,499 | 0% |
| Source:Estadísticas de tráfico aereo[28] | |||
On 27 March 1977, Tenerife North Airport (then Tenerife Los Rodeos) was the scene of the deadliest accident in aviation history, which claimed the lives of 583 people. While attempting to take off,KLM Flight 4805, aBoeing 747-206B, collided withPan Am Flight 1736, aBoeing 747-121, which was taxiing along the runway. All 248 passengers and crew on the KLM flight were killed, along with 335 occupants of the Pan Am flight; however, 61 of the passengers and crew on board the Pan Am survived. Neither of the two airliners were originally scheduled to land on Tenerife, as both flights were bound forGran Canaria Airport but had been diverted to Los Rodeos as a result of a terrorist bombing at Gran Canaria.[29][30][31][32][33]
| Date | Airline | Aircraft type | Registration | Flight number | People on board | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1956-09-29 | Aviaco | SNCASE Languedoc | EC-AKV | 38 | 1 on ground | |
| 1964-07-03 | Ejército del Aire | Douglas DC-3 | 21 | 4 | ||
| 1965-05-05 | Iberia | Lockheed L-1049G | EC-AIN | 401 | 49 | 30 |
| 1965-12-07 | Spantax | Douglas DC-3 | EC-ARZ[34] | 32 | 32 | |
| 1966-09-16 | Iberia | Douglas DC-3 | EC-ACX | 261 | 27 | 1 |
| 1970-01-05 | Iberia | Fokker F-27 Friendship 600 | EC-BOD | 49 | 0 | |
| 1972-12-03 | Spantax | Convair CV-990 | EC-BZR | 275 | 155 | 155 |
| 1978-02-15 | Sabena | Boeing 707-329 | OO-SJE | 196 | 0 | |
| 1980-04-25 | Dan-Air | Boeing 727-46 | G-BDAN | 1008 | 146 | 146 |
Bus routes 20, 30, 103 and 343 serve the airport.[35]
Media related toTenerife North Airport at Wikimedia Commons
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