Tenerife North, the island’s smaller airport on the Los Rodeos plateau
Opened in 1946 between Santa Cruz and Puerto de la Cruz, the AENA-run airport handles around 70,000 flight movements a year. Crosswinds and low trade wind cloud have long shaped its reputation.
Johannes Bornewasser is an author, journalist and editor-in-chief of Teneriffa News. He is regarded as a recognised expert on the Canary Islands. Bornewasser is also responsible for the editorial content of the website.
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Der Flughafen Teneriffa Nord bei typisch bedecktem Himmel. Foto: Johannes Bornewasser
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Crosswinds and trade wind clouds make Tenerife North Airport a challenge for both man and machine. This is one of the reasons why the second airport was opened, which now handles more than 70 per cent of the flight traffic to the south of the holiday island.
Tenerife North Airport is situated on a high plateau between the capital, Santa Cruz, and the tourist centre Puerto de la Cruz, with direct access to the TF-5 motorway in the north of the island. It belongs to the municipality of La Laguna.
Car hire and public transport at Los Rodeos Airport
You can find information on car hire at Tenerife North Airport here. You can find the current bus timetable for Tenerife and all the information on public transport on the Canary Islands here.
Accidents at Tenerife North Airport
Throughout its history, Tenerife North Airport has been the scene of tragic accidents. Following the loss of 32 lives in 1965, the worst accident in the history of the airline Spantax occurred in 1972, claiming 155 lives.
On 27 March 1977, the worst accident in civil aviation history – not involving terrorism – occurred at the airport in the north of Tenerife. The accident, which has gone down in history as the ‚Tenerife air disaster‘, claimed 583 lives.
The accident involved a collision between two aircraft. A KLM Boeing 747-200 that was taking off collided with a Pan Am aircraft of the same type that was waiting on the runway. Among the reasons for the tragic accident were the lack of ground-based radar at the time, as well as disruptions to radio communications. A detailed reconstruction and background information on the Tenerife air disaster can be found here.
Facts and figures about Tenerife North Airport
Three years later, another 146 people lost their lives when a Dan-Air Services aircraft crashed into a mountain at an altitude of 1,600 metres. There was also a near-collision in October 2021. You can find all the information on this here.
Tenerife North Airport handles just under 70,000 flight movements a year. It is operated by AENA. Its international airport code is TFN.
Tenerife North Airport live
By the way: You can view a live webcam at Tenerife North Airport right here.
Watch now: The worst disaster in civil aviation history: when 583 people died in the Tenerife fog
Foto: Johannes Bornewasser
You can find all the information about Tenerife’s southern airport – now the more popular of the two – here.
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