Africa-Press – Angola. The new International Airport of Luanda Dr. António Agostinho Neto will start operating at the end of this year (2023), said the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, this Monday.
The new international airport occupies an area of 1,324 hectares and will have a capacity for 15 million passengers and a volume of goods of 50,000 tons per year.
Speaking to the press, at the end of a visit of a few hours to the infrastructure, the Head of State expressed his satisfaction with the physical evolution of the works.
“We will have the airport at the end of the year. We are going to inaugurate it”, he said, without giving a fixed date.
During the visit, João Lourenço met with members of the Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), the institution responsible for the work.
With regard to furniture, the Angolan President said that until the date of inauguration, the airport will be able to serve passengers.
João Lourenço reiterated that, in order to satisfy the movement of passengers, taking into account the potential of the new airport, negotiations are underway with the North American aircraft manufacturer Boeing, for the acquisition of new aircraft.
“We are negotiating with Boeing. It is a negotiation that has been going on for some time and we want to believe that this time, yes, we will end up negotiating a new package of long-haul Boeing aircraft”, he explained.
During the guided tour, accompanied by members of the Executive, João Lourenço inspected the air and airport navigation management building, regional and integrated control centre, passenger terminal, boarding area, commercial, check-in and VIP areas. , screening, baggage collection, domestic and regional disembarkation, among others.
The new airport has two double runways and is dimensioned to receive, among others, B747 and A380 aircraft, currently the largest commercial aircraft.
The south runway, the largest at the airport, is four thousand meters by 60 meters wide, and received, in June 2022, the first experimental flight of a Boeing 777 aircraft from the national flag company TAAG.
The airport project contemplates the construction, from scratch, of an airport city that will cover an area of 75 square kilometres.
President João Lourenço’s last visit to the new airport works took place in December 2022.
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