History
In 1919, Frenchman Pierre George Latécoère was granted clearance from the French & Spanish governments to establish an airline route between Toulouse & Casablanca. This also included stopovers in Malaga, 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, a visual approach slope indicator system was built and a new control tower was built, replacing the old control tower that was constructed in 1946. The control tower was completed in 1966. In 1964, a transmission station was built.
In 1970, work began on the current passenger terminal that is being used to operate flights today. The new terminal 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. From 16 February 2011, Ryanair will operate 30 routes from Gran Canaria, 12 of which are new.
Currently Gran Canaria airport is under construction. Among the improvements are 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 will be fully active in 2013 doubling the current area. There is also a plan for the building of a new runway for the airport.
Read more about this topic: Gran Canaria Airport
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