Gran Canaria Airport, located on the coast of the island from which it takes its name, is the gateway for the millions of tourists who visit the island every year.

The airport is situated 25 kilometres from one of the main tourist centres of the Canary Islands - the southern area of Gran Canaria - and 18 kilometres from the island's capital and the province of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Thanks to its ideal weather conditions, Gran Canaria Airport has excellent operating conditions and is open 24 hours a day every day of the year. This represents a guarantee for the airline companies, which can carry out their operations without the problems arising from adverse weather conditions.

In 2005 a total of 9,827,157 passengers, 110,748 flights and 40,390 tonnes of cargo were handled.

Gran Canaria Airport (Las Palmas) is Spain's fifith busiest airport and by far the busiest airport in the Canary Islands. Around 9.5 million passengers pass through the airport each year with 1.7 million of those passengers going to and from other Canary Islands.

In Spanish the airport is known as Aeropuerto de Gran Canaria.

Arrivals at Gran Canaria are dealt with on the ground floor and Gran Canaria departures where you check in etc are dealt with on the first floor. In total there are some 86 check in desks and the airport is split into 3 main areas: Zone A, Zone B and Zone C.

Zone A deals with all EU flights, Zone B deals with all other International flights and Zone C handles all inter-island traffic. You will also find a VIP lounge in the Departures area which can be used for free by Business Class passengers or for a fee of around €15 for any other passengers.

Although there is no train service on Gran Canaria getting to and from the Airport is a fairly painless experience. You can easily book private Gran Canaria Airport (Las Palmas) transfers where a driver will meet you in the arrivals hall or just head for the taxi rank and hop into one of the Gran Canaria taxis. We have also written a section that gives the routes and timetables for the Gran Canaria Airport (Las Palmas) buses.

History

At the end of the First World War, Frenchman Pierre George Latécoére was granted clearance from the French and Spanish governments to establish an airline route between France and their African and South American colonies. The first stage of this route, Toulouse-Casablanca, was inaugurated in 1919 with stopovers at the airports of Barcelona, Alicante and Malaga. For the second stage, Casablanca-Dakar, the Canary Islands were considered as a stopover point and link with America.

In April 1930, the land and maritime facilities to be built in Gando were declared a national airport by Royal Decree. In 1933, the first passenger flight took place and in 1935 this route became the Madrid-Canary Islands route. The first navigation aids were installed in 1934, authorising the operation of a radio-electric station to give service to Gando airport.

Between 1944 and 1946 the passenger terminal was built. The airline company offices located in the facilities at the Lanzarote Air Station were then transferred there, thus separating civil and military activities. A Decree passed in July 1946 declared the airport open to all types of domestic and international traffic, classifying it as a customs airport.

In 1948, works was begun to surface the first 700 metres of runway, and this runway was extended, in June 1957, to 2,000 metres, all of it with a tarmac surface. With this extension the airport was classed as a second category facility. That same year works began to improve the control tower facilities, the power plant and the navigational aids.

First category airport

In 1960 the runway was extended to 3,100 metres. A year later, a VOR (unidirectional radio beacon) was installed and a rescue and services park was built. With these improvements, the airport became classified as a first category airport. The following year a power station and a taxiway was built and the airfield perimeter was enclosed.

In 1963 the following works were carried out: new parking areas were built, a radio-electric link was installed at Dakar (Senegal), the passenger terminal was enlarged, a VASIS (visual approach slope indicator system) was installed, and links between the taxiway and parking areas were built. Construction works on the control tower began at the end of 1966. Until then the tower integrated in the 1946 passenger terminal had been used. The following year the transmitter station was built.

In 1970 building began on a new passenger terminal. Furthermore, the lateral shoulders of the runway and taxiway were adapted for the new jet aircraft traffic that was then coming into operation. The new terminal opened in March 1973 and began to receive domestic traffic. In 1980 the second runway was inaugurated, which made it possible to significantly increase passenger traffic.

In October 1991 the passenger terminal was enlarged and remodelled. At the end of the First World War, Frenchman Pierre George Latécoére was granted clearance from the French and Spanish governments to establish an airline route between France and their African and South American colonies. The first stage of this route, Toulouse-Casablanca, was inaugurated in 1919 with stopovers at the airports of Barcelona, Alicante and Malaga. For the second stage, Casablanca-Dakar, the Canary Islands were considered as a stopover point and link with America.

Gran Canaria Airport (Las Palmas) - AENA airport

Address:

Ctra. Gral. del Sur. Gando/Telde 35071
Gran Canaria/Las Palmas

Telephone: 928 579 130

E-mail:

URL: http://www.aena.es/grancanaria

AENA accepts no responsibility for the information posted at this site neither for the possible damages caused for the use of this information.

Runway 03R/21L

10171 x 148 feet
3100 x 45 meters

Runway 03L/21R

10171 x 148 feet
3100 x 45 meters

Navaids

Navaids

Gran Canaria Airport (Las Palmas) - AENA airport

The content above was published at Airports-Worldwide.com in 2006.
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