Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport

Aeroporto Internacional Dr. António Agostinho Neto (Portuguese)

IATA: NBJ
ICAO: FNBJ

Summary

Airport type

Public

Owner

Government of Angola

Operator

Empresa Nacional de Exploração de Aeroportos e Navegação Aérea (ENANA)

Serves

Luanda

Location

Bom Jesus, municipality of Ícolo e Bengo, Luanda Province, Angola

Hub for

TAAG Angola Airlines

Elevation AMSL

522 ft / 159 m

Coordinates

9°2′48.4″S 13°30′25.9″E / 9.046778°S 13.507194°E

Website

[1]

Runways

Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
06L/24R	13,123	3,800	Asphalt
06R/24L	12,470	4,000	Asphalt

Source: aerobaticsweb.org ^[1]

Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport (Portuguese: Aeroporto Internacional Dr. António Agostinho Neto)^[2] (IATA: NBJ, ICAO: FNBJ), informally Novo Aeroporto Internacional de Luanda (NAIL), is an international airport serving the capital of Angola, Luanda. It is located in the commune of Bom Jesus, within the municipality of Ícolo e Bengo, Luanda Province, 40 km south-east of the Luanda city center.

It is the largest airport ever constructed by any Chinese enterprise outside of China.^[3] It is intended to be Angola's main gateway to the world and an important air hub for Africa.^[3] It will gradually replace the city's existing Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, which will remain open for non-commercial air services, maintenance, and training.^[4]

The airport is designed for 15 million passengers annually and 130,000 metric tons of cargo.^[3]^[4]^[5] The five busiest airports in Africa handle 7.5 to 28 million passengers per year,^[6] of which three have direct flights from Luanda. The older Luanda airport served 5.6 million in 2018.

While recognizing that the new airport will have a much larger capacity than is needed in 2024, the government considers it to be a bet on the future, hoping to facilitate increased trade within Africa, especially for air cargo.^[7]

Operational delays

[edit]

The airport was officially inaugurated on November 10, 2023. ^[4] ^[8] ^[7] Domestic passenger flights were planned to begin in February 2024 and international passenger services in June 2024.^[3]

Flight operations began slowly, however, as the first cargo flight was on 19 December 2023,^[9] and only 32 cargo flights were completed by 20 February 2024.^[10] During the 30 days ending August 9, 2024, fewer than 10 flights were recorded.^[11] By early April 2024, the target date to shift all operations to the new airport was the end of 2024.^[7]

Construction and Facilities

[edit]

The site was selected in 2004 and construction began in mid-2006.^[12] The original date for completion was 2012.^[12] Construction costs, which were to be financed largely by China, were estimated in 2015 at US$3.8 billion.^[12] Reporting in 2024 indicates the project started in 2005, with construction beginning in 2013.^[7] The project was led first by China International Fund^[13] in conjunction with the Brazilian company Odebrecht until 2019, then by Aviation Industry Corporation of China.^[5] The original contract was terminated in 2017 and a new contract issued in 2020.^[7]

The facility has a total area of 43 hectares, consisting of two modern runways and three terminal buildings.^[3]^[7] The passenger terminal occupies 160,000 sq.m, while the cargo terminal is 6,200 sq.m., on a precinct with a total area of 50 sq.km.^{[citation needed]}

The project includes the construction of a rail link to the capital. Due to high traffic jams and in order to cope with the future traffic, the highway connection to Luanda required that the existing road from Luanda to Malanje needs a mass expansion, which is now completed, and is converted as a six-lane and four-lane highway.^{[citation needed]}

Runways

[edit]

The airport has two parallel runways, located 2.2 kilometres (1.3 mi) from each other. The first runway is 4,000 m × 60 m (13,123 ft × 200 ft). The second runway is 3,800 m × 60 m (12,467 ft × 200 ft).^[1]