# Gran Canaria Airport

Gran Canaria Airport (IATA: LPA, ICAO: GCLP) (Spanish: 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 managed by a public enterprise, AENA), as it holds the sixth position in terms of passengers, and fifth in terms of operations and cargo transported. It also ranks first of the Canary Islands in all three categories, although the island of Tenerife has higher passenger numbers overall if statistics from the two airports located on the island are combined. The facility covers 553 hectares (1,370 acres) of land and contains two 3,100m runways.
The airport is located in the eastern part of Gran Canaria on the Bay of Gando (Bahía de Gando), 19 km (12 mi) to the south of Las Palmas, and 25 km (16 mi) from the popular tourist areas in the south. In 2014, it handled over 10.3 million passengers, ranking 1st in the Canary Islands and 5th in Spain by passenger traffic. Gran Canaria Airport is an important hub for passengers travelling to West Africa (Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Cape Verde, among others), and to the Atlantic Isles of Madeira and the Azores. It serves as base for Binter Canarias, Canaryfly, Ryanair, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Vueling. Other airlines use it as a base to operate charter flights to Cape Verde and Gambia (TUI fly Deutschland and TUI fly Nordic), but only in the winter.

## History

In 1919, Frenchman Pierre George Latécoère was granted clearance from the French and Spanish governments to establish an airline route between Toulouse and Casablanca. This also included stopovers in Málaga, Alicante and Barcelona. The airport opened on 7 April 1930, after King Alfonso XIII signed a royal order announcing that the military air force installations on the Bay of Gando would become a civilian airfield. In its existence, the airport has become the largest gateway into the Canary Islands, as well as the largest in terms of passenger and cargo operations, although the island of Tenerife has higher passenger numbers overall between the two airports located on the island.
In 1946, the old passenger terminal opened, which took two years to build. In 1948, a runway was built, which was completed and fully tarmacked in 1957.
In 1963, improvements to the airport were made. This included new parking spaces, enlargement of the terminal and the provision of a visual approach slope indicator system. In 1964, a transmission station was built. In 1966 a new control tower was completed, replacing the old control tower that was constructed in 1946. In 1970, work began on the current passenger terminal which opened in March 1973. During this time, a second runway was being built and this was completed in 1980.
On 18 February 1988, Binter Canarias announced that the airline's main base was to be established at Gran Canaria. The base opened on 26 March 1989. In October 1991, the terminal was enlarged with improved facilities so it could handle more passengers.
In December 2010, low-cost carrier Ryanair announced the opening of 3 new bases on the Canary Islands. In addition to Gran Canaria these include Lanzarote and Tenerife South. Ryanair presently operates 30 routes from Gran Canaria. The airport was an official alternative (emergency) landing site for the NASA Space Shuttle, before the ending of the Space Shuttle programme in July 2011.
As of 2011, there was a programme to expand the airport, extending the terminal and creating a new runway. In 2015 this major renovation of Gran Canaria airport was completed. Among the improvements was increasing the number of baggage belts, 16 to 24, check-in counters from 96 to 132 and gates, up to 40. The new terminal area is now fully active, doubling the previous area. There is also a plan for the building of a new runway for the airport.

## Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Gran Canaria Airport:
| Airlines | Destinations |
| Aegean Airlines | Seasonal: Athens |
| Aer Lingus | Dublin |
| airBaltic | Seasonal: Aalborg, Bergen, Billund, Copenhagen, Oslo, Riga, Sandefjord, Tallinn, Tampere, Vilnius |
| Air Europa | Madrid |
| Air Nostrum | Seasonal charter: Porto |
| Animawings | Seasonal: Bucharest–Otopeni (begins 3 June 2025) |
| Atlantic Airways | Seasonal: Vágar Seasonal charter: Billund |
| Austrian Airlines | Vienna |
| Binter Canarias | A Coruña, Agadir, Almería (begins 1 April 2025), Asturias, Badajoz (begins 1 April 2025), Dakar–Diass, Dakhla, El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Granada, Guelmim, Laayoune, La Gomera, Lanzarote, La Palma, Madrid, Murcia, Nouakchott, Palma de Mallorca, Pamplona, Sal, San Sebastián, Santander, Tenerife–North, Tenerife–South, Valencia (begins 30 March 2025), Vigo, Zaragoza Seasonal: Córdoba (begins 1 April 2025), Essaouira, Fès, Ibiza, Jerez de la Frontera, Menorca, Ponta Delgada, Reus, Tangier, Valladolid, |
| Braathens International Airways | Seasonal charter: Aalborg, Borlange, Copenhagen Gothenburg, Helsinki, Norrköping, Stavanger, Umeå |
| British Airways | London–Gatwick |
| Brussels Airlines | Brussels |
| CanaryFly | Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Palma, Tenerife–North |
| Condor | Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig/Halle, Munich, Stuttgart Seasonal: Berlin |
| Corendon Airlines | Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hannover, Nuremberg |
| Corendon Dutch Airlines | Amsterdam Seasonal: Maastricht/Aachen |
| Copenhagen Air Taxi | Seasonal charter:Billund |
| Discover Airlines | Frankfurt, Munich |
| easyJet | Basel/Mulhouse, Berlin, Bristol, London–Gatwick, London–Luton, London–Southend (resumes 30 March 2025), Manchester, Milan–Malpensa Seasonal: Amsterdam, Belfast–International, Birmingham (begins 2 May 2025), Edinburgh, Geneva, Glasgow, Liverpool (begins 27 October 2025), Milan–Linate (begins 1 November 2025), Naples |
| Edelweiss Air | Zürich |
| Enter Air | Charter: Katowice, Poznań, Warsaw–Chopin, Wrocław |
| Eurowings | Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hamburg Seasonal: Berlin, Graz, Hannover, Nuremberg, Salzburg, Stuttgart |
| Finnair | Helsinki |
| Freebird Airlines Europe | Seasonal charter: Leipzig/Halle |
| Iberia | Madrid, Melilla Seasonal: Alicante, Badajoz, Córdoba, León, Santiago de Compostela, Valencia, Valladolid, Vigo, Zaragoza |
| Iberia Express | Madrid |
| Icelandair | Seasonal: Reykjavik–Keflavík |
| Jet2.com | Belfast–International, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, London–Luton (begins 4 April 2025), London–Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne |
| Jettime | Seasonal charter: Aalborg, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Luleå, Malmö, Norrköping, Örebro, Stockholm–Arlanda |
| Lufthansa | Seasonal: Munich |
| Luxair | Luxembourg |
| Marabu | Munich Seasonal: Hamburg |
| Mauritania Airlines | Nouadhibou, Nouakchott |
| Neos | Milan–Malpensa, Verona Seasonal charter: Reykjavik |
| Norwegian Air Shuttle | Copenhagen, Oslo Seasonal: Bergen, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Sandefjord, Stavanger, Stockholm–Arlanda, Trondheim Seasonal charter: Ålesund, Bodø, Kalmar, HaugesundKarlstad |
| Play | Seasonal: Reykjavík–Keflavík |
| Royal Air Maroc | Laayoune |
| Royal Air Maroc Express | Casablanca |
| Ryanair | Bergamo, Berlin, Birmingham, Bologna, Bournemouth, Bristol, Budapest, Charleroi, Cologne/Bonn, Cork, Dublin, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Kraków, London–Luton, London–Stansted, Madrid, Málaga, Manchester, Marrakesh, Memmingen, Milan–Malpensa, Newcastle upon Tyne, Palma de Mallorca (ends 28 March 2025), Rome–Fiumicino, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Valencia, Vienna Seasonal: Barcelona, Glasgow–Prestwick, Hahn, Pisa, Porto, Shannon, Treviso |
| Scandinavian Airlines | Oslo Seasonal: Copenhagen, Stockholm–Arlanda Seasonal charter: Bergen, Billund, Gothenburg,, Kalmar, Kristiansand, Kristiansund, Molde, Stavanger, Trondheim |
| Smartwings | Prague Seasonal charter: Kassel |
| Sunclass Airlines | Charter: Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm–Arlanda Seasonal charter: Aalborg, Bergen, Billund, Gothenburg, Harstad/Narvik, Helsinki, Jönköping, Karlstad, Kuopio, Luleå, Malmö, Örebro, Stavanger, Sandefjord, Tromsø, Trondheim, Turku, Umeå, Vaasa |
| Sundair | Seasonal: Berlin, Bremen, Dresden, Münster/Osnabrück |
| TAP Air Portugal | Lisbon |
| Transavia | Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Paris–Orly, Rotterdam/The Hague Seasonal: Brussels |
| TUI Airways | Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Dublin, East Midlands, Glasgow, London–Gatwick, London–Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne Seasonal: Bournemouth, Exeter |
| TUI fly Belgium | Brussels, Liège, Ostend/Bruges Seasonal: Antwerp |
| TUI fly Deutschland | Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover, Munich, Stuttgart |
| TUI fly Netherlands | Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Groningen |
| TUI fly Nordic | Charter: Gothenburg, Stockholm–Arlanda Seasonal charter: Luleå, Malmö, Norrköping, Umeå, Växjö |
| Volotea | Asturias, Lyon, Nantes Seasonal: Bilbao, Toulouse |
| Vueling | Alicante, Asturias, Barcelona, Bilbao, Granada, Málaga, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Valencia |
| Wizz Air | Rome–Fiumicino Seasonal: Bucharest–Otopeni (begins 17 July 2025), Budapest, Wrocław (begins 5 December 2025) |

## Statistics
### Traffic figures

| | Passengers | Aircraft movements | Cargo (tonnes) |
| 2000 | 9,376,640 | 98,063 | 43,706 |
| 2001 | 9,332,132 | 93,291 | 40,860 |
| 2002 | 9,009,756 | 93,803 | 39,638 |
| 2003 | 9,181,229 | 99,712 | 40,050 |
| 2004 | 9,467,494 | 104,659 | 40,934 |
| 2005 | 9,827,157 | 110,748 | 40,389 |
| 2006 | 10,286,726 | 114,949 | 38,360 |
| 2007 | 10,354,903 | 114,355 | 37,491 |
| 2008 | 10,212,123 | 116,252 | 33,695 |
| 2009 | 9,155,665 | 101,557 | 25,994 |
| 2010 | 9,486,035 | 103,087 | 24,528 |
| 2011 | 10,538,829 | 111,271 | 23,679 |
| 2012 | 9,892,067 | 100,393 | 20,601 |
| 2013 | 9,770,253 | 95,483 | 18,781 |
| 2014 | 10,315,732 | 102,211 | 19,821 |
| 2015 | 10,627,182 | 100,417 | 18,800 |
| 2016 | 12,093,645 | 111,996 | 18,588 |
| 2017 | 13,092,117 | 118,554 | 18,045 |
| 2018 | 13,573,304 | 131,027 | 19,174 |
| 2019 | 13,261,228 | 126,451 | 19,739 |
| 2020 | 5,134,252 | 67,280 | 13,926 |
| 2021 | 6,899,523 | 83,983 | 15,853 |
| 2022 | 12,417,699 | 119,530 | 15,830 |
| Source: Aena Statistics ||||

### Busiest routes

Busiest european routes from LPA (2023) :
| Rank | Destination | Passengers | Change 2022 / 23 |
| 1 | Düsseldorf | 354,653 | 15% |
| 2 | Amsterdam | 347,277 | 5% |
| 3 | Manchester | 311,392 | 6% |
| 4 | Frankfurt | 300,620 | 17% |
| 5 | Oslo | 296,887 | 19% |
| 6 | London-Gatwick | 283,531 | 23% |
| 7 | London-Stansted | 235,524 | 24% |
| 8 | Stockholm-Arlanda | 225,175 | 20% |
| 9 | Copenhagen | 225,032 | 2% |
| 10 | Dublin | 189,914 | 31% |
| 11 | Birmingham | 179,309 | 13% |
| 12 | Bristol | 171,246 | 28% |
| 13 | Helsinki | 164,262 | 17% |
| 14 | Hamburg | 154,240 | 24% |
| 15 | Munich | 148,202 | 9% |
| 16 | Zurich | 140,754 | 36% |
| 17 | Brussels | 135,714 | 3% |
| 18 | Berlin | 132,289 | 4% |
| 19 | Cologne/Bonn | 123,114 | 14% |
| 20 | Newcastle | 122,252 | 21% |
| Source: Estadísticas de tráfico aereo ||||
Busiest intercontinental routes from LPA (2023) :
| Rank | Destination | Passengers | Change 2022 / 23 |
| 1 | Laayoune | 47,375 | 13% |
| 2 | Marrakech | 44,745 | 40% |
| 3 | Nouakchott | 37,801 | 29% |
| 4 | Dakar-Diass | 20,433 | 34% |
| 5 | Sal | 13,689 | 69% |
| 6 | Casablanca | 10,593 | 18% |
| 7 | Dakhla | 7,292 | 119% |
| 8 | Nouadhibou | 6,963 | 49% |
| 9 | Boa Vista | 6,909 | 25% |
| 10 | Guelmim | 4,995 | 14% |
| Source: Estadísticas de tráfico aereo ||||
Busiest domestic routes from LPA (2023) :
| Rank | Destination | Passengers | Change 2022 / 23 |
| 1 | Madrid | 1,606,855 | 12% |
| 2 | Tenerife-North | 901,701 | 14% |
| 3 | Lanzarote | 811,069 | 9% |
| 4 | Fuerteventura | 659,647 | 10% |
| 5 | Barcelona | 508,117 | 8% |
| 6 | Seville | 278,699 | 7% |
| 7 | Málaga | 242,673 | 22% |
| 8 | La Palma | 229,694 | 7% |
| 9 | Tenerife-South | 221,266 | 17% |
| 10 | Santiago de Compostela | 165,691 | 0% |
| 11 | Bilbao | 133,086 | 7% |
| 12 | Valencia | 100,997 | 4% |
| 13 | Asturias | 94,078 | 25% |
| 14 | Palma de Mallorca | 78,719 | 15% |
| 15 | El Hierro | 64,983 | 15% |
| 16 | La Gomera | 55,572 | 59% |
| 17 | Granada | 53,898 | 58% |
| 18 | Vigo | 44,788 | 19% |
| 19 | Alicante | 41,241 | 9% |
| 20 | Pamplona | 33,490 | 20% |
| Source: Estadísticas de tráfico aereo ||||

## Ground transportation

The airport can be reached by several island roads from all points in the island. Bus services are provided by Global with their routes 5, 60, 66, 90 and 91.. There are also special bus services from most towns in Gran Canaria, but access by taxi is usual.
Gran Canaria's main motorway GC1 runs past the airport providing transport links to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the North and to the tourist resorts in the South.
Plans have existed for several years to construct a rail link connecting the airport to Las Palmas and Maspalomas. As of 2018, the Tren de Gran Canaria scheme was estimated to be underfunded by €1,500 million.

## Military use

There is an airbase of the Spanish Air and Space Force to the east of the runways. Beyond several hangars opposite to the passenger terminal, the Gando Air Base (Base Aérea de Gando) contains ten shelters situated on the southern end of the eastern runway. They harbor the Ala 46 with F/A-18 Hornets, CASA 212 and the Eurocopter AS 532 of SAR. Ala 46 or 46 Wing, composed of 462 and 802 fighter squadron, defends the Spanish airspace around the Canary Islands. It is one of the biggest and most important air bases of the Spanish Air and Space Force and is unique for the wide variety of aircraft which it operates.
Military activity was most intense during the mid-1970s, at the time of the crisis of decolonisation of Western Sahara and its occupation by Morocco. Military crises in Western Africa, like the 2013 Mali intervention by France, made Gando Air Base the main air platform for operations in Western Africa area by NATO. In 2006 Spain proposed Gando Air Base as headquarters for the newly created US Africa Command (AFRICOM), but the AFRICOM HQ was ultimately based in Stuttgart (Germany).
The Canary Islands Air Command (Mando Aéreo de Canarias – MACAN) is based in the city of Las Palmas. Canary Islands Air Command is the only territorial general Air Command Air Force in Spain; its mission is the maintenance, preparation and command of air units located in the Canary archipelago. Any Spanish military airplane that lands in the Canary Islands is immediately put at the disposal of the Canary Islands Air Command, who can retain it and use it as long as necessary for missions within the islands. This happens sometimes with heavy military transport, antisubmarine warfare and early warning airplanes; the islands do not have these on a permanent basis. Once the plane is released by the Canary Islands Air Command, it can leave the Canary Islands and reverts to the Air Force Commands of mainland Spain.
The deployment base of Gando Air Base is the Lanzarote Military Airfield (Aeródromo Militar de Lanzarote). Lanzarote Military Airfield has permanently its own Air Force troops platoons and the radar for the air defence (the EVA 22, which covers the Eastern Canary Islands and the maritime area up to the Sahara), but it has no permanently based military planes, using the ones from Gando.

## Other facilities

Canaryfly has its head office in Hangar L. Binter Canarias also has its head office on the airport grounds.

## MPAIAC bombing and Tenerife disaster

At 1:15 PM on 27 March 1977, a bomb planted by the Movement for the Independence and Autonomy of the Canaries Archipelago (MPAIAC) exploded in a florist's shop on the terminal concourse. Fifteen minutes of warning was given to the airport authorities, who started to evacuate the building; the inside of the terminal was damaged and eight people were injured, one seriously.