Tefía

28°32'22"N 014°00'05"W (apprx)

Flying field - 1400x..m - gravel

Tefía airfield was an airfield on the island of Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain.
The airfield was conceived in a 1940 plan by the Chief of the Canary Islands Air Done as a replacement for the Tetit airfield. He choose a plain just outside Tefía, dominated by a windmill 30 kilometers from the capital and 156 meters above sea level.  The plain was surrounded by hills and had a hard and stony ground. In early 1941, when World War II was in full swing, the Spanish Air Force designed a defense plan for the Canary Islands that included amongst others an airfield at Fuerteventura.
For its construction the sum of 186,840 pesetas was reserved. The natural terrain of Tefía was suited to serve as a runway also available to civilian air traffic. Added to that, the location was considered to be well out of range of large naval guns. The initial garrison consisted of a mere 20 soldiers who built a camp with a kitchen, bedroom and a home. The terrain required little work and had a trapezoid shape of 1,400 meters. Additionally to the soldiers some civilians also worked at the field, filling buckets to an average of about ten truckloads a day.

In 1942 the airfield was finally cleared of stones and the first aircraft, a Spanish Air Force Ju-52/3m landed with an aviation company. From 1944 military aircraft began using the airfield regularly, with at least a supply flight every fortnight. Iberia, operating on a provisional license, began operating weekly Fuerteventura - Gran Canaria - Tenerife flights from September 1946 with a Ju-52. Their small office, mesuring only 3 square meters, had a desk, a chair and a scale for the weighing of baggage. As a bus service did not exist yet, the representative picked up his passengers by taxi on the scheduled day well in advance.
On 23 January 1950 the airfield was officially opened to civilian air traffic for domestic, international and technical stopover flights. In spite of limited resources, the only major problem was access by roads, which were is a very bad condition. Still, Iberia flew to the airfield twice a week. In February the airfield registered 8 flights and 46 passengers. Overall, the year 1950 was closed with 170 flight and 769 passenger movements.
Over time Tefía revealed some important deficiencies, mainly the frequent changes in wind, causing turbulence and sometimes preventing aircraft to land. Added to the 30 kilometer distance to the islands major city, the bad roads, and the general condition of the airfield, a proposal was made to build a new airfield at Los Estancos.
Civilian air traffic to the airfield was ordered to stop on 3 May 1952. On the 8th all services were ordered to move to the new airfield. The last flight from the airfield, by a Ju-52, was made on the 17th.


The plain were Tafía airfield was once located (Fotolog.com (in spanish)).

The Air Ministry of Spain ceded the airfield to the Ministry of Finance, who transferred it to the Ministry of Justice to establish an agricultural prison colony to be known as Vagrancy Colony (Spanish: 'colonia de vagos y maleantes'. Despite the reluctance of the island council and the public, the first inmates arrived in May 1954 and the colony operated for many years.
In April 1973, the former airfield served as a field for military maneuvers. On day 11, when a brigade parachute jumped from an airplane over the plain of Tefía, a very strong wind blew over the rocky plains and caused the deaths of 13 soldiers. The wounded were evacuated to Las Palmas. A memorial erected on the plain of Tefía carries a plaque with the names of the unfortunate soldiers to commemorate the tragedy that shook Spain and, especially, the people of Fuerteventura and the Canary Islands.
In October 1973, the land was purchased by auction by the Island Council for the installation of an experimental agricultural farm.