Tenerife South Airport () , also known as Tenerife South–Reina Sofía Airport, is the larger of the two

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

s located on the island of

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

(the other being

Tenerife North Airport Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of April 2025, it is the most populou ...

) and the second busiest in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

(after

Gran Canaria Airport Gran Canaria Airport () 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 managed by a public enterprise, AENA), as it holds the sixth position in te ...

). 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 immigr ...

and handled over 11 million passengers in 2018. Combined with Tenerife North Airport, 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 second airport at a new location, because the existing airport (then called "Los Rodeos Airport"), now known as

Tenerife North–Ciudad de La Laguna Airport Tenerife North–Ciudad de La Laguna Airport , formerly Los Rodeos Airport, is the smaller of the two international airports on the island of Tenerife, Spain. It is located in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, by road from Santa Cruz de Tenerife (C ...

, did not meet technical requirements due to adverse weather conditions, especially low visibility in foggy conditions; this was exemplified by the events of what became the deadliest aviation accident in history, when in 1977, two

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...

s collided on the runway at Los Rodeos, killing 583 people, in part, due to very low visibility. Only 20 months later, with the disaster still fresh in people's minds, the new airport was inaugurated on 6 November 1978, by Queen Sofía of Spain, to whom the airport is dedicated. The first flight was

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

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 as the Douglas DC-9 prior to August 1967, after which point the company had merged with McDonnell ...

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 (), or VIASA for short, was the Venezuelan flag carrier airline between 1960 and 1997. It was headquartered in the Torre Viasa in Caracas. Launched in , it was nationalised in 1975 due to ...

inaugurated flights to Caracas. The link served the large proportion of the Canarian diaspora that resided in Venezuela. The airline ceased operations in 1997, after which

Avensa Avensa (''Aerovías Venezolanas Sociedad Anonima'') was a Venezuelan airline that operated from its hub at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetía. At one time, it had its headquarters in the now Government-owned Torre El Chorro in ...

started plying the route. Due to financial problems, Avensa later let Santa Bárbara Airlines take over its flights to Spain and then began code-sharing on them. In October 2002, Santa Bárbara commenced service to Reina Sofía Airport using a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. It switched to Tenerife North Airport four months later.

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...

launched thrice weekly-service to Tenerife from Newark in June 2022, using a

Boeing 757-200 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the trijet 727, received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maiden ...

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 ten are equipped with

jetbridge A jet bridge is an enclosed connector which most commonly extends from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, and in some instances from a port to a boat or ship, allowing passengers to board and disembark without heading outside and being exp ...

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

Busiest routes

Ground transport

Bus services

The public bus service TITSA 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.

Car rental

Several car rental companies authorized by

AENA ENAIRE is the air navigation manager in Spain, certified for the provision of enroute, approach and aerodrome control services. As a Statutory corporation, public corporate entity attached to the Ministry of Public Works (Spain), Spanish Minis ...

operate at Tenerife South Airport. These companies are located in the arrivals halls for both domestic and international flights. There are other car rental companies operating outside the airport, but they are not authorized by AENA.

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