Tenerife North Airport (IATA: TFN, ICAO: GCXO), formerly Los Rodeos Airport, is one of the two international airports on the island of Tenerife, Spain. It is located in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, 11 km (6.8 mi) by road from Santa Cruz and at an altitude of 633 metres (2,077 ft). In 1977, the airport was the site of the worst accident in aviation history when 583 passengers and crew were killed after two Boeing 747s collided on the runway in heavy fog. Both planes exploded and started fires, and were completely destroyed.
Tenerife North handled 4,095,103 passengers in 2011. Combined with Tenerife South Airport, the island gathers the highest passenger movement in the Canary Islands with 12,751,583 passengers. The busiest air route from the airport in terms of passengers is the one to Madrid Airport, at over one million passengers a year.
Today TFN is an inter-island hub connecting all seven Canary Islands with connections to the Iberian Peninsula, Europe, and North America. The route between Tenerife North and Madrid-Barajas is the airport's busiest with an average of 40 flights per day.
Read more about Tenerife North Airport: Buildings, History, Airlines and Destinations, Statistics, Accidents and Incidents
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“In England if something goes wrong—say, if one finds a skunk in the garden—he writes to the family solicitor, who proceeds to take the proper measures; whereas in America, you telephone the fire department. Each satisfies a characteristic need; in the English, love of order and legalistic procedure; and here in America, what you like is something vivid, and red, and swift.”
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“It was like taking a beloved person to the airport and returning to an empty house. I miss the people. I miss the world.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)