Tenerife South Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de Tenerife Sur) , also known as Tenerife South–Reina Sofía Airport, is the larger of the two international airports located on the island of

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

(the other being

Tenerife North Airport Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

) and the second busiest in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

(after

Gran Canaria Airport Gran Canaria Airport , sometimes also known as Gando Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de Gran Canaria), is a passenger and freight airport on the island of Gran Canaria. It is an important airport within the Spanish air-transport network (owned and manag ...

). It is located in the municipality of

Granadilla de Abona Granadilla de Abona is a municipality of Tenerife, located in the south of the island, occupying an area of 155 square kilometers. Its population in 2013 was 43,608. In recent years, the population has greatly increased due to an influx of immig ...

and handled over 11 million passengers in 2018. Combined with

, the island gathers the highest passenger movement of all the Canary Islands, with 12,248,673 passengers, surpassing Gran Canaria Airport.

History

In the late 1960s, the island authorities of Tenerife found the need for a new airport at a new location, because the existing airport did not meet technical requirements due to adverse weather conditions, especially low visibility in foggy conditions. The new airport was inaugurated on 6 November 1978, by Queen

Sofía of Spain Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. Sofia may also refer to: People * Sofia (given name), alternate form of the given name Sophia *Sofia (Filipino singer), a bossa nova singer from the Philippines * Sofia (Swedish singer), full n ...

, to whom the airport is dedicated. The first flight was

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

flight IB187 from Lanzarote, which was operated by a

McDonnell Douglas DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

landing at 10:17. The airport was constructed close to the Tomás Zerolo airfield, which closed when TFS opened. By the end of its first year, 1 million passengers had passed through its doors. In June 1980,

Viasa Venezolana Internacional de Aviación Sociedad Anónima ( en, JSC Venezuelan International Airways), or VIASA for short, was the Venezuelan flag carrier airline between 1960 and 1997. It was headquartered in the Torre Viasa in Caracas. Launche ...

inaugurated flights to

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

. The link served the large proportion of the

Canarian diaspora Canary Islanders, or Canarians ( es, canarios), are a Romance people and ethnic group. They reside on the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain near the coast of northwest Africa, and descend from a mixture of European settlers and abor ...

that resided in Venezuela. The airline ceased operations in 1997, after which

Avensa Avensa (''Aerovías Venezolanas Sociedad Anonima'') was a Venezuelan airline headquartered in Caracas. It was in the process of financial restructuring, after it went into bankruptcy due to poor management in 2002, with Santa Barbara Airlines t ...

started plying the route. Due to financial problems, Avensa later let

Santa Bárbara Airlines Santa Bárbara Airlines C.A, doing business as SBA Airlines and formerly as ''Santa Bárbara Airlines'' prior to 2008, was an airline with its headquarters on the third floor of the ''Edificio Tokay'' in Caracas, Venezuela. It operated scheduled ...

take over its flights to Spain in exchange for a

codeshare agreement A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

. Santa Bárbara commenced service to Reina Sofía Airport in October 2002 using McDonnell Douglas DC-10 equipment, although it switched to

four months later.

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

launched a direct connection to

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

in June 2022. Boeing 757s operate the flight on a seasonal basis.

Terminal

Tenerife South consists of one three-storey passenger terminal in a classic brick style. The main level, Floor 0, contains all check-in and service counters, the departures waiting areas as well as the arrivals and main baggage reclaim. The departures area features 40 boarding gates of which eight are equipped with

jetbridge A jet bridge (also termed jetway, jetwalk, airgate, gangway, aerobridge/airbridge, skybridge, finger, airtube, expedited suspended passenger entry system (E-SPES), or its official industry name passenger boarding bridge (PBB)) is an enclosed, ...

s. While the upper floor 1 contains office space and transit corridors, the basement level -1 features additional luggage belts.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Tenerife South Airport:

Statistics

Passengers

Routes

Ground transport

The public bus service

TITSA TITSA is the ''Transportes interurbanos de Tenerife, S.A.'' which operates the only public bus service in Tenerife, on the Canary Islands. It carries over 60 million travellers a year in a fleet of approximately 600 vehicles. History In 1884, ...

offers services to all parts of the island. Line 343 connects the South Airport (TFS) with

(TFN). The planned Tren del Sur will serve the airport if it is built.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tenerife-South Airport Airports in the Canary Islands Airports established in 1978 Buildings and structures in Tenerife Transport in Tenerife