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Los Rodeos

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

Tenerife Norte - Los Rodeos
Summary
IATA	TFN	ICAO	GCXO
Airport type		International
Operator		Aena
Serves		Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Elevation MSL		2002 ft (610 m)
Coordinates		28° 29' 0" N 16° 20' 5" W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
12-30	11,155	3,400	asphalt

Tenerife North - Los Rodeos Airport (TFN/GCXO) is one of two international airports on the island of Tenerife, the other one being the much larger and busier Reina Sofía Airport, in the south of the island. The airport is served by the following national and international airlines:

Iberia, Air Europa, Spanair, Islas Airways, Binter Canarias, LTU International, Britannia Airways, Santa Barbara Airlines. Finnair

Los Rodeos is located 11 kms by road from the capital Santa Cruz, whilst Puerto de la Cruz is 28 kms away. The popular resorts of Los Cristianos and Las Americas lie 90 kms away to the south-west.

Los Rodeos airport is situated on a 2,000-feet-high plateau where it is often subject to heavy fog, sudden dangerous crosswinds and magnetic abnormality. No less than 5 fatal air crashes have occurred at or near the airport since 1965 (total casualties 964), the deadliest being the infamous and tragic Tenerife disaster which took place on March 27, 1977 and was officially the worst aircraft disaster in history until 9/11

Contents

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History

A popular anecdote tells of how German engineers where asked to come to the island of Tenerife to investigate which location, in their opinion, would be best suited to build the island’s first airport. Lacking an interpreter, the Germans emphatically pointed at a location they had marked out on the map of the island, making a very fuss about it. After thanking them for their help, the map was taken by Spanish officials to those responsible for the building of the airport, who were shown the map and told about how the Germans kept pointing at the large cross drawn in red pencil. To the spanish, it seemed obvious that the Germans were trying to say that an airport could not be built anywhere on the island except for this location. This location was, of course, none other than the fateful plain of Los Rodeos…

In the Winter of 1929, many years before the airport had even been built, the field at Los Rodeos was hastily prepared to accommodate the first (though unofficial) flight into Tenerife operated by an Arado VI (D-1594) aircraft operating from Berlin on behalf of Deutsche Lufthansa.

In May 1930, the Compañía de Líneas Aéreas Subvencionadas S.A. (C.L.A.S.S.A) established the first air link between the Spanish mainland and the Canary Islands using a Ford 4-AT Trimotor (M-CKKA), which took off from Getafe, Madrid to the Los Rodeos field via Casablanca, Cape Juby and Gando in Gran Canaria

After the final location of the airport had been decided, funds were gathered between 1935 and 1939 to build a small hangar and begin expanding the airstrip which would become Los Rodeos airport. After the interruption of civil flights caused by Spanish civil war, operations into Los Rodeos recommenced on 23rd of January 1941 with the a De Havilland DH89A Dragon Rapide operating an Iberia flight from Gando in Gran Canaria

By 1946, more hangars, a passenger terminal and an 800m paved runway had been built, and the airport was officially opened to all national and international traffic. The runway was stretched various times during the 1940’s and 50’s until reaching a length of 2,400m in 1953, by which time the airport was also equipped with runway edge lighting and a air-groung radio, enabling nocturnal operations.

By 1964, runway 12-30 had been stretched to 3,000m to accommodate the DC-8, new Navaids (Navigation Aids) were installed, and the apron was expanded to provide more parking spaces for aircraft. In 1971, with the prospect on the Boeing 747 flying into the airport, the runway is re-enforced and and ILS (Instrument Landing System) was installed.

In 1978 the authorities announced the construction of the new Tenerife South - Reina Sofía Airport and a scale-down of operations in Los Rodeos.

After sharp increases in passenger numbers in the 1990s, the airport underwent a process of modernisation between 2002 and 2005, culminating with a new car park, motorway access ramps, a new four-story passenger terminal with 12 gates and 6 'fingers', and a new separate terminal for insular flights.

As well as offering a selection of domestic and international connections, Los Rodeos has become an inter-island hub 'par excellence', connecting with all of the 6 other islands.

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Accidents

Overview of Los Rodeos airport looking south-east over runway 12 with the cities of Santa Cruz and La Laguna in the background. © courtesy of Dario Crusafon

Date	Airline	Type	Registration	Fatalities
05.05.1965	Iberia	Lockheed L-1049G	EC-AIN	30:49
12.07.1965	Spantax	Douglas DC-3	EC-ARZ	32:32
05.01.1970	Iberia	Fokker F-27 Friendship 600	EC-BOD	0:49
12.03.1972	Spantax	Convair CV-990	EC-BZR	155:155
27.03.1977	Pan American World Airways	Boeing 747-121	N736PA	335:396
27.03.1977	KLM Royal Dutch Airlines	Boeing 747-206B	PH-BUF	248:248
25.04.1980	Dan-Air	Boeing 727-64	G-BDAN	146:146

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Destinations

The route between Los Rodeos/Tenerife North and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is the busiest with an average 40 flights per day between the two islands .

The following are the destinations served by scheduled airlines from Los Rodeos (as of June 2005)