More information about Los Rodeos

Tenerife North Airport (IATA: TFN, ICAO: GCXO) is located 11 km by road from Santa Cruz and is one of two international airports on the island. TFN is an inter-island hub, connecting all six Canary Islands, and offers connections to the Spanish Peninsula ,Europe,and South America

The route between Tenerife North and Gran Canaria is the busiest with an average 40 flights per day.

Buildings
A new terminal was inaugurated in 2002, comprising car park, motorway access ramps, and four-storey 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.

Capacity
In 2004 the airport registered passenger traffic of 3.3 million (+15%),In 2005 it rose to 3.8million (+11%)and in 2006 it was over 4 million (+7%).Flights in the same period rose from 56,000 to 65,000 . The busiest route number being to Madrid Airport, at over one million people.

History
In the winter of 1929, 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 Lufthansa.

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 flew from here after taking over the island to invade the mainland and start the Spanish civil war. Operations into Los Rodeos recommenced on 23rd of 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 800m 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 2,400m 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 3,000m 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.

Map
Click here to view a interactive map of Los Rodeos/Tenerife.

Photos
Click here to view photos of Los Rodeos.

Flights from Los Rodeos

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source: Wikipedia.org