Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport (, ), is the main

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

. It is located in the southern part of the capital

Luanda Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ...

, situated in the

Luanda Province Luanda is a province of Angola. It used to cover an area of 18,835 km2, and had a population of 6,945,386 at the Census of 16 May 2014. The city of Luanda is the capital of the province and Angola. It serves as the country's primary port, cultur ...

. ''Quatro de Fevereiro'' means 4 February, which is an important national holiday in Angola, marking the start of the armed struggle against the Portuguese colonial regime on 4 February 1961. In 2018, about 5.6 million passengers were handled. Starting 2024, the airport will be replaced by the new Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport.

History

The construction of the airport began in 1951, in order to serve the capital of the former-Portuguese Overseas Province of Angola. It was inaugurated in 1954, by the Portuguese President Craveiro Lopes, which in his honor, the airport was named ''Aeroporto Presidente Craveiro Lopes'' (President Craveiro Lopes Airport). In August, September, and October 1975 the airport hosted tens of thousands of mostly white Portuguese Angolans fleeing to Lisbon (during ''Operation Air Bridge'') who camped-out while awaiting evacuation flights during the weeks before Angola's Independence. Following Angola's independence from Portugal (in November 1975), the airport was renamed ''Aeroporto Quatro de Fevereiro Internacional'' (Fourth of February International Airport) to commemorate the events leading to the independence of the state.

Facilities

The airport is at an elevation of above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. It has two asphalt paved

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

s: 05/23 is and 07/25 is . from

DAFIF The Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File or DAFIF () is a comprehensive database of up-to-date aeronautical data, including information on airports, airways, airspaces, navigation data, and other facts relevant to flying in the entire wo ...

(effective October 2006)

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Luanda Quatro de Fevereiro Airport:

Statistics

Accidents and incidents

* On 26 March 1979, a cargo-configured Interflug Ilyushin Il-18 DM-STL overshot the runway following an engine failure during the take-off run. The aircraft broke up and erupted into flames, killing the ten people on board. *On 12 February 2000, a Transafrik International cargo

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...

crashed upon landing on runway 23. Due to high winds gusting to between 50 and 80 knots, the aircraft had executed a missed approach, and upon the landing flare of the second attempt, witnesses saw the right wing touch the ground. *On 25 May 2003, a Boeing 727-223 with the registration number N844AA, which had been parked at the airport for over a year, was stolen in mysterious circumstances. As of January 2025, the aircraft has not been located. *On 27 June 2009, a

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

Boeing 777-200ER G-RAES was damaged, while it was parked, by a collision with a

Hainan Airlines Hainan Airlines is an airline headquartered in Haikou, Hainan, China. It is the largest civilian-run enterprise, civilian-run and majority State ownership, state-owned air transport company, making it the fourth-largest airline in terms of flee ...

Airbus A340-600 B-6510. *On 31 January 2010, Guicango

Yakovlev Yak-40 The Yakovlev Yak-40 (; NATO reporting name: Codling) is a regional jet designed in Soviet Union by Yakovlev. The trijet's maiden flight was in 1966, and it was in production from 1967 to 1981. It was introduced to service in 1968, with export mo ...

D2-FES suffered the collapse of all landing gears on landing after a flight from Cabinda.

References

External links

* *
Luanda Airport website
by the operator ENANA EP {{authority control Airports in Angola Buildings and structures in Luanda Airports established in 1954 1954 establishments in Angola