Los Rodeos Airport
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| Los Rodeos Airport (Tenerife North Airport) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| IATA: TFN - ICAO: GCXO | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Operator | Aena | ||
| Serves | Santa Cruz de Tenerife | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 2002 ft (610 m) | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 12/30 | 11,155 | 3,400 | Asphalt |
Los Rodeos Airport (IATA: TFN, ICAO: GCXO), also known as Tenerife North Airport, is one of two international airports on the island of Tenerife in Spain. The airport is located 11 km by road from the capital Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and is mostly used for connecting Tenerife City with Mainland Spain and for inter Canary Island flights. The other airport on the island is the much larger and busier Reina Sofía Airport, also called Tenerife South Airport.
The popular resorts of Los Cristianos and Las Americas lie 90 km away to the south-west and are much better served by the other airport of the island of Tenerife, the Reina Sofia Airport.
The route between Los Rodeos/Tenerife North and Gran Canaria International Airport is the busiest with an average 40 flights per day between the two islands.
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[edit] 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 airport. After the interruption of civil flights caused by Spanish civil war, operations into Los Rodeos recommenced on 23rd of January 1941 with the 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 various times during the 1940’s and 50’s until reaching a length of 2,400m in 1953, by which time the airport was also equipped with runway edge lighting and an air-groung radio, enabling nocturnal operations.
By 1964, runway 12-30 had been stretched to 3,000m to accommodate the DC-8, new Navaids (Navigation Aids) were installed, and the apron was expanded to provide more parking spaces for aircraft. In 1971, with the prospect on the Boeing 747 flying into the airport, the runway was re-enforced and an ILS (Instrument Landing System) was installed.
However, after sharp increases in passenger numbers in the 1990s, the airport underwent a process of modernisation between 2002 and 2005, culminating with a new car park, motorway access ramps, a new four-story passenger terminal with 12 gates and 6 'fingers', and a new separate terminal for insular flights.
As well as offering a selection of domestic and international connections, Los Rodeos has become an inter-island hub 'par excellence', connecting with all of the 6 other islands.
[edit] Airlines and destinations
- Air Berlin (Nüremberg)
- Air Europa (Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Sevilla)
- Air Madrid (Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Guayaquil, Madrid)
- Binter Canarias (El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, Lanzarote, La Palma, Milan-Orio al Serio, Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
- Britannia Airways
- British Airways
- British Airways operated by GB Airways (London-Gatwick)
- Finnair (Helsinki)
- Iberia (Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, Sevilla, Valencia)
- Islas Airways (Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma)
- LTU International (Düsseldorf)
- Ryanair (Dublin, Girona [starts March 9, 2007])
- Santa Barbara Airlines (Caracas)
- Spanair (Barcelona, Madrid)
[edit] Accidents and incidents
| Date | Airline | Type | Registration | Flight | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05.05.1965 | Iberia | Lockheed L-1049G | EC-AIN | 30:49 | |
| 07.12.1965 | Spantax | Douglas DC-3 | EC-ARZ | 32:32 | |
| 05.01.1970 | Iberia | Fokker F-27 Friendship 600 | EC-BOD | 0:49 | |
| 03.12.1972 | Spantax | Convair CV-990 | EC-BZR | 155:155 | |
| 27.03.1977 | Pan American World Airways | Boeing 747-121 | N736PA | 1736 | 335:396 |
| 27.03.1977 | KLM Royal Dutch Airlines | Boeing 747-206B | PH-BUF | 4805 | 248:248 |
| 25.04.1980 | Dan-Air | Boeing 727-64 | G-BDAN | 146:146 |
In 1977, two Boeing 747s collided on the runway after the KLM plane started to take off without permission from the Air Control Tower, killing 583 people -- the worst aircraft accident in history - see Tenerife disaster.
