The 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, located in the urban district of Maianga, Luanda province, may be transformed into an aeronautic Maintenance and Training Centre, after 70 years dedicated to commercial flights.
According to the Angolan Government, the airport infrastructure will also be responsible for Special Flight Operations and Executive (Presidential) Flights, in addition to non-commercial air transport and non-scheduled flights.
The redefinition of the scope of the Airport follows the inauguration of the Dr. António Agostinho Neto International Airport, located in the municipality of Icolo e Bengo, which becomes the main gateway to and from Angola.
The 4 de Fevereiro International Airport was inaugurated in 1954 by the then President of Portugal, General Craveiro Lopes, who gave his first name to the infrastructure.
It was, until this year, the largest and most used in Angola. It was baptized in 1976 with the name 'Luanda Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport', as part of the celebrations of February 4, 1961, a date dedicated to the beginning of the armed struggle and national liberation.
However, the construction of Luanda airport began before that date, as the works began in 1951 and ended in 1954. The airport, which is 74 m (243 ft) above sea level, has two paved runways: one 3,716x45 meters and the second 2,600x60 meters.
It has an area of approximately 450 hectares, while Dr. Agostinho Neto Airport has approximately 1,324 hectares.
History says that until the 1950s, Luanda depended on the Emílio de Carvalho Aerodrome, built in 1918, at independence square (Largo da Independência), Rua Deolinda Rodrigues.
The reconnaissance and studies necessary for the elaboration of the project for a new aerodrome for the city of Luanda began in 1945, through ordinance no. 11 029/45, of 21 July, which created a technical mission for this purpose.
The studies indicated the location and concluded the need to build a new airport in Luanda. During the war of national independence, the airport was divided between the civil and military airport operations of the Portuguese Air Force Air Base No. 9.
A year after national independence, achieved on November 11, 1975, it was renamed “4 de Fevereiro International Airport”.
The renaming ceremony took place with a visit from the then President of the Republic, António Agostinho Neto.
Requalification works
Since the end of the armed conflict in Angola, in 2002, the airport has received many rehabilitation and expansion works, which allowed the remodeling of the passenger terminal and the construction of a new car park.
The works aimed to increase the number of departure lounges, counters, baggage reclaim mats and passenger handling capacity from 400 to 1,000 per hour.
The list of improvements also includes the arrangement of the aircraft exit area, the construction of taxiways (C, C1 and C2), as well as the parallel taxiway connecting C1 to C2 of the airport space.
Finally, the works increased capacity from 1.2 million passengers per year, to 3.6 million, with an investment of around 74 million dollars.
As it is completely integrated into the urban area, its expansion became impossible, so the Angolan authorities developed studies to build a new airport, in the municipality of Icolo e Bengo, 40 km from the center of Luanda. VM/DOJ
