# El Hierro Airport (VDE)

> El Hierro Island, ES · IATA: VDE · ICAO: GCHI · Medium Airport

## Quick Facts

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| IATA | `VDE` |
| ICAO | `GCHI` |
| City | El Hierro Island |
| Country | ES |
| Type | Medium Airport |
| Elevation | 31 m |
| Cargo | ❌ |
| GPS | 27.81480, -17.88710 |

## Description

Codes VDE (IATA) and GCHI (ICAO) belong to the only airport on El Hierro, the smallest and most westerly Canary Island and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, opened on 11 December 1972 about 9 km north-east of the island capital Valverde. The freight role is marginal in the extreme: around 322,000 passengers used the airport in 2024 against just 53 tonnes of air cargo, down from 58 tonnes in 2023. Binter Canarias and Canaryfly link VDE by ATR 72 turboprop to Tenerife Norte (TFN) and Gran Canaria (LPA) several times a day, and goods move only as belly freight on these inter-island hops. There is no cargo terminal and no commercial customs clearance on site; the Canaries sit inside the EU customs territory but outside its VAT area, so consignments face AIEM and IGIC formalities that are handled on the larger islands. Time-critical freight is therefore consolidated through the Tenerife Norte and Gran Canaria hubs. On the landside, the island council began resurfacing the HI-3 airport access road towards Tejeleita in November 2025, a roughly EUR 2.6 million job scheduled over six months. For forwarders, VDE feeds the island's basic supply rather than functioning as a cargo airport.

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*Freight Academy — Airport Profile: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/el-hierro-airport-vde](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/el-hierro-airport-vde)*

*Markdown mirror: [https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/el-hierro-airport-vde](https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/el-hierro-airport-vde)*

*LLM-Summary (JSON): https://www.freight-academy.com/api/v1/airports/el-hierro-airport-vde/llm-summary*