The Expansion works for the passenger terminal run by Aena at Tenerife Sur airport enter their final stretch. The entity expects that they will be completed in the next few months to open the new facilities in the first half of 2022 in order to double the operational area of check-in and boarding of the airport and expand the capacity of the current 13 million passengers per year to 16 million , reported Spanish Airports and Air Navigation (Aena). The works, which began more than two years ago – in April 2019 – consist of the construction of a building that will link the two terminals, integrating them into a single area. The new building in Tenerife Sur, included in the Airport Regulation Document (DORA) 2017-2021, will allow the departure process to be placed on a single level. Likewise, security controls will be centralized, four new boarding gates and two new walkways will be incorporated, and the commercial offer will be improved, which will reinforce the quality and image perceived by the passenger. The usable area will increase by 14,000 square meters. The work was awarded by Aena for 44.2 million euros.
At the same time that it is constructing the building that will connect the two terminals, Aena is undertaking the adaptation of Terminal 2 to the boarding processes, an action awarded for 6.1 million euros and which is aimed at expanding the area destined for boarding in both terminals. Terminal 2 is already built but has not yet opened. This new boarding area, which will join the building that will connect it to Terminal 1, will have six gates. The available area will increase by more than 5,000 square meters.
The Tenerife airport expansion project also includes other actions, such as the general adequacy of the aircraft parking apron, completed in December 2019 and which involved a budget of 29.4 million euros.
The DORA II project plan (2022-2026) also includes the drafting of the project for a new terminal in Tenerife South, in whose design Aena works together with the Cabildo de Tenerife. As in the rest of the airport network, the largest amounts of investment projects in capacity have been transferred to DORA III (2027-2031), in the case of Madrid or Barcelona, since the covid has caused traffic figures to fall and its recovery is expected, according to international organizations, for the final stretch of the period that includes DORA II.
DORA II incorporates the first steps of these large investments in capacity, in the case of Tenerife Sur airport, the development of the new terminal project. This infrastructure, like everything related to the Canary Islands, is a priority for Aena, although the COVID crisis has forced the investment calendar to be adjusted, as has happened with the rest of the airports in the network, reports the entity that manages the airports Spanish people.
