The aeronautical museum on Lanzarote is located in the old terminal building at the airport. The museum seems to suffer a lack of visitors, as its homepage states that one of its aims is to increase awareness of its existence amongst the local population.

I had passed it on previous occasions, but being en route to the new airport to catch a flight to Madrid I did not have time to visit it. Instead, I always made a note of going there on my next visit.

The aeronautical musum at Arrecife airport, the original passenger exit is on the left

This time I actually managed it, and although I was not disappointed, I did begin to understand the problem that the museum has, because there was almost no-one else there!

The building is located further inland than the current terminals, near the main road. It has its own car park, but for some reason the entry to the visitors’ car park is confusingly preceded by a sign declaring that “authorised vehicles only” may pass.

Although Lanzarote did have an airport in the 1930s and was even flown over by airships on their way to the USA, this closed during the Spanish Civil War and it was not until 1946 that a civilian airport was opened again. The passenger terminal was very modest, consisting of a few rooms and a small control tower on the front. The aircraft would roll up to just in front of the building, at which point the passengers would come out through a side door and walk over to them.

Inside the original control tower

However until the 1970s the only flights were to the other Canary Islands – there was not even an air connection to Madrid – so this was probably more than sufficient. In 1970 the current Terminal 2 was opened, and flights to the Spanish mainland started.

The museum contains interesting photos and artifacts of those years, and as such is worth a visit. You can even go into the old tower and see the radio equipment that used to be operated by a single person. Entry to the museum is free and the staff speak Spanish, English, German and French, although most of the descriptions of the photos are only in Spanish. Tours can be arranged in advance, but are not a requirement. Opening times are Monday to Saturday, 10am to 2pm.

The car park at Arrecife airport is split into two halves. One half is reserved for the hire car companies, who park their fleet there when not in use. The other half is open to the public and has one of the most unusual price structures that I have ever seen for a car park.

They charge by the minute.

Admittedly the price is only between 1 and 2 cents per minute, and as of 2009 the first half hour is free.  So effectively that is about 1 Euro per hour, making it cheaper than most car parks in Germany.

But still, as fair as it might seem to have such an exact method of charging, imagine what it must be like to have to wait in a long queue at the ticket machine on your way out  and see the minutes ticking by!

Airport parking charges, October 2009

Do you know how much luggage you can take on a flight to Lanzarote?  In particular, how much hand luggage?

Different airlines allow different amounts of luggage in the hold, but the rules on hand luggage can vary depending on which direction you are flying!

Iberia, for example, allows 10kg of hand luggage according to their website, although German regulations only allow 8kg.  Theoretically you can therefore bring back 2kg more of luggage from Lanzarote than you can take with you.

Another complication can be that not every airline follows the IATA recommendations on the dimensions of hand luggage, Lufthansa being one example – and in Frankfurt, Lufthansa provide the check-in facilities for SpanAir.

When I first flew to Lanzarote in September 2001, there were understandably very strict restrictions on what you could take onto the aircraft (although you could buy a manicure set from the on-board duty free trolley!) and I took just the bare minimum with me, putting everything else into my suitcase.  This caused it to have more than the allowed 20kg, but I pointed out at the check-in desk in Frankfurt that in return I had less than 1kg of hand luggage and so I did not have to pay any extra.

Returning with a couple of new books and souvenirs, I had even more kilos in that suitcase.  But again, with very little hand luggage this was not a problem.

Travelling as a family group can also be an interested experience at the check-in desk, but generally in Frankfurt the family will be considered as a single entity.  Thus a family of 3 can check-in a total of 60kg of luggage, as long as none of them on their own are over 30kg.

Of course, things do not always have to go so well, as the passengers on a flight to Frankfurt found out last week.  Due to the wind conditions in Arrecife, the pilot of a 757-300 had 80 suitcases off-loaded to reduce the weight of the aircraft before taking off.

I guess that it is one of the hazards of bringing home souvenirs from Lanzarote – lava is heavy!