The Angolan Government has spent the sum of $3.7bn on the construction of the Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport, commonly known as Novo Aeroporto Internacional de Luanda (NAIL), an international airport in Angola’s capital city, Luanda.
New Luanda International Airport
The New Luanda International Airport named after Agostinho Neto, the first president of Angola, has a terminal that can handle an impressive 15 million passengers per year with ambitious plans to expand this in phases to eventually allow for 65 million passengers making it one of the largest airports in Africa.
The airport covers a total area of 28.9 miles (75 square kilometers) with two parallel runways, one being a whopping 3,800 meters long and the other 4,000 meters long. The Luanda International Airport’s cargo terminal can handle 130,000 tons of cargo per year.
The airport also has an 82-metre control tower and its very own rail station with maintenance hangers currently under construction in addition to three terminals with 31 contact positions for planes . The construction of the airport started in 2005 under a Government-Public partnership before the government took over the construction fully in 2015.
The airport is set to eventually replace the existing airport, the Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, which is set to remain open for non-commercial air services including training and maintenance.
The new airport will be the country’s main gateway to the world and is set to become an important air hub for Africa as the Angolan government considers the new Luanda International Airport to be a bet on the future that will look to revolutionize and increase trade within Africa, particularly when it comes to air cargo travel.
