Gran Canaria Airport: UK Flights, Arrival, Transfers and Mobile Data

Gran Canaria Airport at a glance

LPA is its IATA code and GCLP its ICAO code, and the airport is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Passenger numbers are well past their pre-pandemic level: Aena counted 13.3 million in 2019, 15.2 million in 2024 and 15.8 million in 2025.

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Routes to and from the UK carried 2.1 million of those 2025 passengers, more than any country except Spain. Germany came next on 1.9 million, according to Aena's provisional figures.

Aena runs the airport. Its own history calls it Gando airport, after the area where Spain declared a national airport in 1930, and the Spanish Air Force's Gando Air Base still shares the airfield. When you book or check a timetable, search for "LPA" or "Gran Canaria Airport".

UK flights to Gran Canaria Airport: routes and airlines

Aena's route list shows direct flights to LPA from 17 UK airports, from Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow down to Bristol, Cardiff and Bournemouth. Heathrow is not among them.

The biggest airline at LPA is Binter Canarias, which carried 24% of passengers in 2025, almost all of them on flights within Spain. Vueling (11%) and Ryanair (10%) came next.

On UK routes, Jet2.com is the airline you meet most. It flies from 14 of the 17, from Manchester and Birmingham to Leeds Bradford, where it has the route to itself. Ryanair flies from 10 of them, TUI Airways from 9 and easyJet from 8, and BA Euroflyer flies from Gatwick.

London has four options: Gatwick (easyJet, Jet2.com, TUI Airways and BA Euroflyer), Luton (easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2.com), Stansted (Ryanair and Jet2.com) and Southend (easyJet). Routes change with the season, so check the airline's own timetable before you plan around one.

Arriving at Gran Canaria Airport: terminal layout, passport control and baggage

The passenger terminal opened in March 1973 and has been extended since. Arrivals are on Floor 0, with the car hire desks inside and the taxi rank outside. Departures and the airport bus stops are on Floor 1. Aena's factsheet lists 46 boarding gates and 19 baggage reclaim belts, plus 5 for special items.

As of October 2026, the UK Foreign Office tells British passport holders to queue at the desks staffed by border officers. Adults may be able to use the e-gates when airport staff tell them to and the gates are working. If you use one, make sure your passport gets stamped. Under the EU's new Entry/Exit System (EES), you may also be asked to register your fingerprints and photo at a special booth on your first visit to a Schengen country.

Check your passport before you book. The Foreign Office's advice for travellers on a full British citizen passport is that Spain follows Schengen area rules. Your passport must have been issued less than 10 years before the day you arrive. It must also be valid for at least 3 months after the day you plan to leave the Schengen area. If you travel as a tourist or to visit family or friends, you can stay up to 90 days in any 180-day period without a visa. Any days you spent in Schengen countries in the 180 days before you travel count towards the 90. These rules can change, so check the Foreign Office's Spain entry requirements before you travel.

Departing from LPA: what to allow

Aena sets no general arrival time for LPA, so your airline's check-in and bag-drop deadlines decide when you leave the hotel. If you have booked Aena's assistance service, Aena recommends arriving two and a half hours before your flight. Add some slack for passport control, because the UK Foreign Office says EES checks can take each passenger extra time when you leave the Schengen area too.

Aena sells Fast Lane, a ticket for priority access to security that works from 5:00 to 22:00 and stays valid for 3 months from purchase. Some business fares and airline loyalty cards include it, so check with your airline before you pay. You still have to clear security within the time your airline sets.

Gran Canaria Duty Free is on Aena's list of shops in the terminal. How much alcohol or tobacco you can bring home without UK tax depends on the UK's personal allowances, so check them before you buy.

Getting from Gran Canaria Airport to your resort

Buses, taxis and hire cars all leave from the terminal. The bus is the cheapest way into Las Palmas and down to the southern resorts, from €2.30 a journey, and direct lines serve both, so you do not need to change. The bus fares and taxi tariffs below are the ones Aena listed in October 2026.

Line 60 is the Las Palmas bus, with two departures an hour towards the city from 6:15 to 20:15 and later buses until 23:15. For the south, line 66 runs hourly to Playa del Inglés and Faro de Maspalomas, and line 91 reaches Puerto Rico. All airport buses stop on Floor 1, Departures.

Taxis run on the meter from the signed rank outside Floor 0. By day (6:00 to 22:00) the flag fall is €3.85 and each kilometre costs €1.35, plus a €2.10 airport supplement; nights and public holidays cost more. Aena advises taking a taxi only from the rank and asking for a receipt if you want to complain.

Car hire desks sit on Floor 0 in both the national and international arrivals areas, where the firms include Avis, Cicar, Europcar, Goldcar, Hertz and Sixt. Compare prices before you land, and check whether your travel insurance already covers hire-car excess before you buy cover at the desk.

Staying connected at Gran Canaria Airport and on the island

The terminal has free Wi-Fi. Join the Airport Free Wifi Aena network and sign in with your email address or an Aena Club account; you get 15 minutes to confirm your email, and after that there is no time limit. It only helps while you are inside, and the bus or taxi ride is where you want maps working.

Using your UK plan here depends on your network and tariff. O2 includes the Canary Islands in its EU roaming zone at no extra cost, up to 25GB. EE, Three and Vodafone include Europe on some plans and charge by the day or sell a pass on others, so check your own plan before you fly. Our guide to UK data roaming charges goes through the costs in more detail.

The other route is a travel eSIM. You install it at home, switch it on when you land and it connects to a local network, so you pay for your data up front instead of by the day.

HelloRoam's eSIM connects to 212+ networks worldwide. If your trip carries on to the mainland, our Spain eSIM plans cover that too. For a short break on hotel Wi-Fi, a small plan for maps and messages is plenty; streaming needs more.

Check your phone first. Apple lists the iPhone XS, XS Max, XR and later models as able to use eSIM, and Android support depends on the model. Our guide to using an eSIM on iPhone abroad covers the rest.

Busy months and passport queues at LPA

Expect a busy airport in any month, not just in summer. There are no official queue times for LPA, but Aena's traffic figures tell the story: in 2025 the busiest month was March, with 1.5 million passengers, while July and August carried 1.3 million each, the same as October.

For UK travellers, passport control is the step that can add time. EES checks can make the wait at the border longer than usual, the Foreign Office warns.

Autumn is not a quiet season either: November 2025, with 1.4 million passengers, was busier than August.

Gran Canaria has one airport, and Tenerife has two

You fly into Gran Canaria Airport, code LPA. Aena runs eight airports in the Canary Islands, and LPA is the only one on Gran Canaria.

It has two parallel runways, 3,100 m and 3,099 m long, according to Spain's official aeronautical publication.

The names are easy to muddle if you are island-hopping, mainly because Tenerife has two airports.

Tenerife Sur (TFS) is in the south of the island, in the tourist area, and the UK and Germany account for more than half its traffic. Tenerife Norte (TFN) is in La Laguna, 10 km from Santa Cruz, and mostly handles domestic flights. Lanzarote (ACE) and Fuerteventura (FUE) each have their own airport.

LPA is the busiest of them. Next in 2025 came Tenerife Sur with 14 million passengers, then Lanzarote with 8.9 million, Tenerife Norte with 7.2 million and Fuerteventura with 6.9 million, on Aena's figures. Nearly half of LPA's passengers (7.5 million) flew within Spain.

For island-hopping, LPA's busiest routes after Madrid go to Tenerife Norte, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, so check the three-letter code on every booking.