Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
La Gomera Airport (GCGM/GMZ) serves the Canary Island of La Gomera from a clifftop site above Playa Santiago in the municipality of Alajero, well to the south of the island's capital. It is a modern single-runway field built in the 1990s specifically to avoid the cloudier, forested terrain further north, and today handles scheduled turboprop services to Tenerife North and Gran Canaria alongside occasional general aviation traffic.
La Gomera Airport lies on the southern coast of La Gomera in the Canary Islands, close to the small town of Playa Santiago and within the municipality of Alajero. Operated by Aena, it is a compact single-runway aerodrome that was purpose-built in the 1990s and is often described as the most modern airport in the Canary Islands. For a visiting sim pilot it offers a short, dramatic approach over cliffside terrain to a single hard runway, with commercial Binter Canarias flights sharing the field with any visiting light aircraft.
The airport sits on the south coast of La Gomera, roughly 34 kilometres by road southwest of the island's capital, San Sebastián de la Gomera. It was deliberately sited away from the interior Garajonay National Park and away from the cloudier, foggier weather typical of the island's north, giving the airfield generally clearer conditions than much of the rest of La Gomera. The site, known locally as the Meseta de los Acantilados (Plateau of the Cliffs), required substantial embankments at both ends of the runway to create a usable strip on the volcanic terrain.
The airfield has a single physical runway, 09/27, of 4,921 feet (1,500 metres), with a hard surface and runway lighting. There is no ILS approach available, so arrivals and departures are flown visually.
Ground movements are handled on 121.7 MHz and tower services on 118.4 MHz. There is no ILS at the field, and pilots should expect a visual approach and departure in all cases.
The airfield occupies a distinctive clifftop plateau, the Meseta de los Acantilados, with the runway flanked by engineered embankments dropping to the sea on both approaches. The small coastal town of Playa Santiago, immediately adjacent to the airport, provides a useful landmark when inbound, and the site's separation from the cloud-prone, forested high ground of central La Gomera makes the southern coastline a helpful visual guide when routing to the field.
Aviation on La Gomera began in the 1950s with a private airstrip known as El Revolcadero, built on a hill just to the west of the present airport; it had a single runway aligned 09/27, a hangar, and a small stand used as an improvised control tower, and was used privately by its owner for cargo and crop-fumigation work. Studies for a proper island airport began in 1962 amid concerns over medical evacuation capability, but the project stalled repeatedly, including after the opening of Tenerife South Airport and the introduction of a new ferry route. Difficulties evacuating snake-bite casualties in the 1980s eventually forced the issue, and an agreement to build the airport was signed on 27 July 1987. Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA) took over the project at the end of 1991, and a two-storey passenger terminal built in traditional Canarian style was inaugurated in 1992. The new runway itself, on the clifftop site two kilometres from the old El Revolcadero strip, was completed by 1994, with the airport as a whole becoming fully operational by 1999.
La Gomera Airport remains a small but active airport, with Binter Canarias operating scheduled return flights to Tenerife North and Gran Canaria. As of the most recent published figures, the airport handled around 81,000 passengers and roughly 2,600 aircraft movements a year, reflecting its role as a modest but steady regional link rather than a high-traffic hub. Aena manages the field, and visiting pilots should confirm current arrangements and any prior permission requirements before planning a flight in.
