Tenerife Los Rodeos Airport

Tenerife North Airport (IATA: TFN, ICAO: GCXO) is located 11 km by road from Santa Cruz and is one of two international airports on the island. TFN is an inter-island hub, connecting all six Canary Islands, and offers connections to the Spanish Peninsula, Europe, and South America

The route between Tenerife North and Gran Canaria is the busiest with an average 40 flights per day.

In the 1977 Tenerife disaster, a PanAm and a KLM Boeing 747 collided on the runway after a KLM plane started to take off without permission from the control tower, killing 583 people - the worst aircraft accident in history. The dense fog that regularly plagues the airport played a major role in this disaster, and since then a second airport, Tenerife Reina Sofía has been built in the south at a lower altitude (where the weather is much more ideal for airport operations). Most airlines have moved their flights to this airport and as a result Los Rodeos is now much quieter than it was before the disaster.

In 2004 the airport registered passenger traffic of 3.3 million (+15%),In 2005 it rose to 3.8million (+11%)and in 2006 it was over 4 million (+7%).Flights in the same period rose from 56,000 to 65,000 . The busiest route number being to Madrid Airport, at over one million people.

Official Spotting Locations

There are no official spotting areas at Tenerife Norte.

Other Spotting Locations

Runway 30 Threshold

The 'TF-24' road runs south of the eastern end of the runway, and there is a side road from here offering a good view of aircraft touching down and lining up on Runway 30. This location also offers a reasonable view of aircraft departing from Runway 12, although only heavies such as the Iberia A340 will rotate close to this area. The spot is regularly used by local spotters so providing you park in the side road rather than on the main road there should be no problem with police etc.

Regular Traffic

Air Europa (Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Sevilla) - A320-200, 737-800, 767-300ER, ocassional A330-200

Binter Canarias (El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, Lanzarote, La Palma) - ATR-72, 737-400,

British Airways - operated by GB Airways (London-Gatwick) - A320-200

Cygnus Air - DC-8-62F, 757-200F

Hapagfly - 737-800

Finnair (Helsinki) - 757-200

Iberia (Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, Sevilla, Valencia) - CRJ-200/900, MD-88, A320-200, A321-200, A340-300 (A340-600 in the summer)

Islas Airways (Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma) - ATR-72

LTU International (Düsseldorf) - A320-200, A330-200/300

Ryanair (Dublin, Girona) - 737-800

Santa Barbara Airlines (Caracas) - 767-300ER

Spanair (Barcelona, Madrid) - 717-200, MD-83, A320-200