Tenerife North Airport is less well known and a lot less used by foriegn travellers. Most non-Spanish tourists arrive and leave Tenerife via Tenerife South Airport.

However, Los Rodoes Airport in the north of Tenerife handled over 3.3 million passengers in 2004 and the numbers in 2005 look set to rise as the new inter-island flight hall has transformed this airport into the Canary Islands main inter island airport hub. In Spanish the airport is known as Aeropuerto de Tenerife Norte..

Both departures and arrivals are dealt with on the ground floor of Tenerife North airport and there are a large number of check in desks for both International and Inter Island passengers. In fact for Inter Island passengers the new hall makes life easy as arriving on one flight, collecting your luggage and transferring to another flights can all be done on the same floor.

Getting to and from the north airport in Tenerife means catching a taxi, one of four airport buses or arranging your own private Tenerife north airport transfers.

A combination of four various buses transport you around the Island form the Airport and if your are heading to the south you need to catch Line 340 which for €2.70 takes you down to Tenerife South Airport.

Parking at Tenerife North Airport is pretty good with around 960 spaces reserved for visitors and a further 320 spaces reserved for the various car hire companies at the airport.

As you would expect from an airport that handles over 3 million passengers each year there are a good number of cafes and bars from which to grab something to eat or drink and a selection of airport shops for you to browse at.

History

Following the announcement by Lufthansa airlines, in the summer of 1929, of its intention to fly from Berlin to Tenerife, the Island Council decided to prepare a provisional aerodrome to serve this flight. The lack of time made it advisable to use the plain at Los Rodeos, where the council prepared a surface area of 17 hectares, which it would lease for the aforementioned purpose. The works concluded at the end of the summer, however the arrival of the Lufthansa flight was delayed: a breakdown forced the aircraft to return to Berlin from Seville, where it was preparing to continue its flight to Tenerife. A second attempt by the German airline was made in December. On the 5 December, the Arado VI aeroplane, which had originally departed from Berlin, took off from Seville en route to Tenerife.

For some years, the Island Council was indecisive about where to locate the airport. In 1930, it asked the Government to declare Los Rodeos airfield as a national airport, together with the land adjacent to Los Cristianos bay, offering the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife as a provisional airport while the required works were carried out. The Royal Order dated 14 May 1930 approved the designation of Los Rodeos airfield and Los Cristianos bay as national airports, but rejected the declaration of the Santa Cruz seaport as a national airport.

In 1936, the Council began works to improve Los Rodeos airfield, which, at the time, occupied a surface area of 43 hectares. After closure during the Civil War, the airport reopened to traffic on 23 January 1941, with the arrival of Iberia airlines' Dragon Rapide aeroplane from Gando. In the summer, construction began on the passenger terminal and on an aircraft hangar. The works concluded in 1943.

During 1945, a tarmac runway was built. On 3 May 1946, a ministerial order officially opened the airport to traffic, while a decree dated 12 July classified it as a customs airport open to all types of domestic and international traffic.

In 1949, the airport was equipped with a goniometer and a windsock as navigational aids. That same year, runway border lighting and a ground-to-air radio service were added. The airport was then ready for night-time operations.

The problems of airport access were resolved when the access construction works for all sections between the airport and Santa Cruz de Tenerife were classified as urgent.

Despite the works carried out at Los Rodeos, the Council was aware of the inconveniences of its location and of the frequent presence of mist and fog. In addition, the arrival of DC-8 jets in 1962 forced the local authorities to make a final decision on the future of Los Rodeos. The most immediate and economical solution was still Los Rodeos, so they approved the extension of the runway and the installation of the necessary navigational aids. The works on the airfield began in the autumn of 1964; one year later, construction began on a new control tower and the extension of the aircraft parking apron.

The construction of runway 12-30 made it necessary to install conduits in El Barranco del Rodeo, which resolved the problem of periodic flooding suffered by the airport. In 1971, the runway was reinforced to cater for the new Boeing 747, and an instrument landing system (ILS) was installed.

In 1978, the airport authorities decided to close Los Rodeos airport to international traffic (leaving it open to domestic and inter-island flights only) and build a new airport in the southern part of the island.

Tenerife North Airport - AENA airport

Address:

La Laguna

Tenerife

38297

Canary Islands

Airport Code: TFN

Telephone: 0034 922 635 974

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

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

Runway 12/30

11155 x 148 feet
3400 x 45 meters

Navaids

Navaids

Tenerife North Airport - AENA airport

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