Gran Canaria Airport () is a passenger and freight airport on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain. It is owned and managed by a public enterprise, AENA, and 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 of land and contains two 3,100 m runways.

The airport is located in the eastern part of Gran Canaria on the Bay of Gando (Bahía de Gando), to the southEAD Basic . Ead.eurocontrol.int. Retrieved on 2 August 2011. of Las Palmas, and 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 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.

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.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Gran Canaria Airport:

Statistics Traffic figures

+ Passengers Aircraft movements Cargo (tonnes)20009,376,640 98,063 43,70620019,332,132 93,291 40,86020029,009,756 93,803 39,63820039,181,229 99,712 40,05020049,467,494 104,659 40,93420059,827,157 110,748 40,389200610,286,726 114,949 38,360200710,354,903 114,355 37,491200810,212,123 116,252 33,69520099,155,665 101,557 25,99420109,486,035 103,087 24,528201110,538,829 111,271 23,67920129,892,067 100,393 20,60120139,770,253 95,483 18,781201410,315,732 102,211 19,821201510,627,182 100,417 18,800201612,093,645 111,996 18,588201713,092,117 118,554 18,045201813,573,304 131,027 19,174201913,261,228 126,451 19,73920205,134,252 67,280 13,92620216,899,523 83,983 15,853202212,417,699 119,530 15,830Source: 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 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.Yañez and Rodriguez 2008, p. 23. 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.Orden DEF/1575/2007, de 28 de mayo, por la que se establecen las Comandancias Militares Aéreas de Aeropuerto y se fijan sus dependencias. 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.

References

External links