Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport – 17 kilometres from Granada city centre in the district called Vega del Genil – maintains a scheduled traffic link with Barcelona and Madrid, thereby providing a very important service for the social and economic development of Granada and its area of influence.

The airport currently has a passenger terminal with facilities for: departures, arrivals, cafeteria and restaurant, VIP lounge, car hire offices and other services.

In 2005, Granada registered a total of 875,827 passengers, most of these on domestic flights and with a marked season nature oriented towards Easter and the summer months. The airport also handled 15,746 flight operations and 65.8 tonnes of cargo.

History

The first flight over Granada took place during the Corpus Christi celebrations in 1911. This unprecedented act gave rise to more air shows over the next few years, which were interrupted during the First World War. Land situated on the plains near the town of Armilla was used as the base.

Shortly afterwards, the war with Morocco made it necessary to construct a permanent military aerodrome to support the aviation involved in the conflict. To this end, the Granada Town Council gave the land where the air shows were held. The aerodrome opened in June 1922 and was equipped with work shops, warehouses, a block for officers and soldiers, a telegraph station and two canvas hangars with the capacity for seventeen aircraft each. In 1925, the airport was named Dávila Aerodrome, in memory of Luis Dávila Ponce de León.

At the end of the war, the aerodrome was used as an auxiliary airport to Seville and in 1929 it was opened to civilian traffic with the Granada-Seville flight path, which was maintained less than a year. It again was used exclusively for military operations during the Civil War and in 1946 the aerodrome was permanently opened to all domestic, civilian and international tourist traffic as well as to commercial refuelling stops.

Between Chauchina and Santa Fe

During the fifties, the aerodrome started to grow gradually and the following had to be installed: a control tower in 1952, a building for civilian aviation at the request of Aviaco in 1954, a flying school in 1955, etc. However, the relatively poor success of the lines operated and the lack of a hard-surfaced runway so that the new aeroplanes could function gave rise to the construction of a new airport in the city limits of Chauchina and Santa Fe in the sixties.

The works started in 1970 and the airport was opened on the 15th June 1972 to domestic and international passenger and merchandise traffic. A year later, in October 1973, aeronautic easements were established.

At the beginning of the nineties, with the World Ski Championship to be held in Granada in 1995, the airport facilities were considerably improved. The aircraft parking facilities and runway were enlarged, the power plant was restructured, an administrative building was built for Aena and general aviation and the terminal was enlarged and developed.

Before you get to the airport 3 or 4 car hire companies have opened up new offices, a private long term car park has opened and a couple of petrol garages have also opened up.

In the last 12 months both Ryanair and Monarch have started to fly into Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport from the UK so maybe there are more routes planned for the future and they are getting the infrastructure ready now.

The passenger numbers at the airport have definitely increased in the last few years. Back in 2002 just under 500,000 people passed through the airport, by last year (2005) the passenger numbers had increased to 875,000. In Spanish the airport is known as Aeropuerto de Granada.

Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport is an interesting airport to travel to and gives good access to some unknown parts of Andalucia. Apart form the City of Granada and Alhambra Palace, from here you are within easy reach of the Costa Tropical with towns such as Motril, Almunecar, Salobrena, La Herradura.

This airport also gives very easy access to Europe's southern most ski resort in the Sierra Nevada mountains and I believe that both Monarch and Ryanair have made a good move in securing routes to Granada.

Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport Facilities & Services

The airport terminal building is on one level with the departures area to the right and the arrivals area to the left. In the middle are the check in desks, about 11 in total.

After check in it is best to stay in the public area of the airport. Unlike most airports once you go through passport control there are not any shops or cafes.

The shops and cafes at Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport are in the main Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport departures hall. The cafe/restaurant is open for both snacks and proper meals. You can get anything really and as a guide a coffee costs around€1 and a sandwich about €2.75.

Within the departures area is a shop that sold gifts and that kind of thing but I don't remember seeing any cigarettes on sale. This may be because of the new no smoking laws in Spain.

The Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport arrivals hall is at the opposite end of the terminal building but apart from a few car hire companies there is not a lot else here. As you go through the exit you will find the taxis and bus stop. There are direct flights between Granada and the Spainish Cities of Madrid, Barcelona and Palma along with Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands.

Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport Transport

The are no trains at Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport but there are direct Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport buses into the City Center that runs at regular intervals that coincide with the flight arrivals, you can call the bus company on 0034 958 490 164.

Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport Taxis are pretty cheap, a taxi into the City center costs about €17 and about €65 up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Alternatively you could book your own private Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport transfers through Spain's leading company Shuttle Direct.

Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport parking used to be free but like 99% of the other airports in Spain you now have to pay to park here. the costs aren't too bad but if you are planning on leaving your car here for a long time it may be worth considering the new private long term car park that has opened just outside of the airport.

Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport - AENA airport

Address:
18329 Granada

Airport Code: GRX

Telephone: 0034 958 245 200

Fax: 958 245 207

E-mail:

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

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

Runway 09/27

9514 x 148 feet
2900 x 45 meters

Navaids

Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport - AENA airport

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