Tenerife South Airport

Tenerife South, formally Reina Sofia and signed as Tenerife Sur, opened in 1978 on the dry southeastern corner of the island and takes almost all of the holiday…Tenerife South, formally Reina Sofia and signed as Tenerife Sur, opened in 1978 on the dry southeastern corner of the island and takes almost all of the holiday traffic. It has a single terminal, which makes it simple, and it gets very busy at the changeover hours on winter weekends, which makes the queues long.

The reason it is on this side of the island is the weather: the north airport above La Laguna sits in the cloud belt and was closing too often. The consequence is that the resorts grew around this one, and the run from arrivals to Los Cristianos, Playa de las Americas or Costa Adeje is twenty to thirty minutes on a good motorway.

It is also where the car hire is. The great majority of the island's rental pool sits at the two airports, and this is by far the larger of them, so hiring here rather than in a resort gives you a real choice of cars rather than whatever is left.

Getting to the north takes longer than people expect: Puerto de la Cruz is around an hour and a half, and Santa Cruz an hour. The island bus network serves the airport directly and cheaply, and pre-booked transfers meet arrivals with the fare fixed, which is worth it on the late-night flights.