Gran Canaria Airport
Gran Canaria Airport
Gran Canaria Airport (IATA: LPA,
ICAO: GCLP), sometimes also known as Gando Airport (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 is
also ranks first of the Canary Islands in all three categories, although the island
of Tenerife has higher passenger numbers overall between the two airports
located on the island.
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,
Western Sahara, 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 & 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.
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 programe in July 2011.
As of 2011, there was a programe
to expand the airport building a new terminal and a new runway. In 2015 a 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.
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