Terminal
One building handles every flight at Tenerife Sur — there is no letter to check before heading for the right door, only a floor. Aena splits the terminal into three levels: the ground floor for arrivals and baggage reclaim, floor 1 for check-in and boarding, and floor 2, airside, for the VIP lounge and meeting rooms. Work desks cluster around boarding gate B31, and one habit is worth unlearning here: this airport never calls a gate, or a gate change, over a loudspeaker — the printed departure board is the only place that word gets confirmed.
Ground-floor desks handle check-in, and which one is yours only ever shows up on the terminal screens, not on a fixed airline row. Budget the arrival around the destination: passengers flying beyond the Schengen area are asked to be at that desk three hours out, while anyone heading somewhere domestic or inside Schengen gets two.
Hand luggage rides through an x-ray belt while each passenger walks a metal detector on the way toward the gates. Travellers who would rather skip that queue can buy into Fast Lane, the round-the-clock priority channel that airlines also hand to their premium flyers — a purchased pass keeps working for three months.
Reduced-mobility support has to be booked at least 48 hours out, either through the airline or straight through Aena on a phone line staffed from 07:00 to midnight; come departure day, the recommended margin at the designated pick-up spot is two and a half hours before the flight leaves. For a fuller, paid escort — someone walking a passenger through check-in, security and boarding in person — Meet & Assist takes bookings, but only if placed 72 hours before the flight.