Tenerife South Airport

Tenerife South Airport (IATA: TFS, ICAO: GCTS), also known as Tenerife South–Reina Sofía Airport, is the larger of the two international airports located on the island of Tenerife (the other being Tenerife North Airport) and the second busiest in the Canary Islands (after Gran Canaria Airport). It is located in the municipality of Granadilla de Abona 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, 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 747s 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 flight IB187 from Lanzarote, which was operated by a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 landing at 10:17. The airport was constructed close to the Tomás Zerolo airfield, which closed when TFS opened. In June 1980, Viasa 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 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. With the launch of service in late 2026, Air Canada will offer the only service to North America . United Airlines provided thrice weekly-service to Tenerife from Newark between June 2022 and May 2025. 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 jetbridges. 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 Car rental Several car rental companies authorized by AENA 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 Media related to Tenerife South Airport at Wikimedia Commons Official website