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
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 ...
, 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 d ...
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
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 ...
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
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 ...
(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