Amílcar Cabral International Airport

Amílcar Cabral International Airport
Aeroporto Internacional Amílcar Cabral
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Aeroportos Seguranca Aera (ASA)
Serves Espargos
Location Sal, Cape Verde
Hub for
Elevation AMSL 54 m / 177 ft
Coordinates 16°44′33″N 022°56′53″W / 16.74250°N 22.94806°W / 16.74250; -22.94806Coordinates: 16°44′33″N 022°56′53″W / 16.74250°N 22.94806°W / 16.74250; -22.94806
Website www.asa.cv.
Map
SID
Location in Cape Verde
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
01/19 3,272 10,735 Paved
07/25 1,500 4,921 Paved
Statistics (2017)
Passengers 1,092,789[1]
Aircraft Operations 12,479
Metric tonnes of cargo 617.7
Sources: World Aero Data[2]

Amílcar Cabral International Airport (IATA: SID, ICAO: GVAC), also known as Sal International Airport, is the main international airport of Cabo Verde. The airport is named after the revolutionary leader Amílcar Cabral. It is located two km west-southwest from Espargos on Sal Island. Sal was the main hub for the national airline, TACV; now it serves as a base for carrier Cabo Verde Express. This airport was also one of NASA's locations for a facility to handle the Space Shuttle after reentering from orbit.

History

The first airport on Sal Island was built in 1939 by Italy, as a fuel and provisions stopping-point on routes from Europe to South America.[3] The first flight, an arrival from Rome and Seville, was on 15 December 1939. As a consequence of World War II, the Italian involvement in the airport project ceased. After World War II, the Portuguese colonial government purchased the airport from Italy and by 1949 the airport was a fully operational.[3] In 1950, DC-4 service on Alitalia began on a Rome — Sal — Buenos Aires — Caracas route. In 1961 jet service (a DC-8) on the route rendered the stop at Sal unnecessary, and international service was suspended.

Between 1960 and 1967 Sal was a stop of the Voo da amizade (Friendship Flight), a dedicated service between Brazil and Portugal. It was operated from 1960 to 1965 by Panair do Brasil and from 1965 to 1967 by TAP-Transportes Aéreos Portugueses and Varig. Only Brazilian and Portuguese citizens or foreigners with permanent residence in Brazil or Portugal could purchase tickets for those flights, which were extremely popular due to their low fares. At this time, Cape Verde was a Portuguese Overseas Province and therefore part of the territory of Portugal.

From 1963 to 1975, the Portuguese Air Force's No 1 Transit Airfield (AT1, Aeródromo de Trânsito n.º 1) was installed in the Sal airport. The AT1 supported the military air connections between European Portugal and the Portuguese African provinces, as well as serving as the operational base for the maritime patrol aircraft occasionally deployed in Cape Verde.

Beginning in 1967, Sal was used as a refueling stop by South African Airways, for flights to and from Europe, since SAA was denied landing rights by most African countries due to the international boycott of apartheid. By 1983, SAA operated 13 round trips per week between Sal and Johannesburg, using the island as a stop for its Boeing 747 services to New York, Houston, London, Brussels and Amsterdam.[4] The island saw as many as 36 SAA flights per week in the mid-1980s, but this number was cut dramatically following the imposition of US sanctions in 1987.[5] By 1996 only one weekly SAA flight stopped at Sal (service between Johannesburg and New York).[6] Sal was later used as a fuel stop on SAA's Atlanta service starting in 2003.[7] SAA's final flight to Atlanta was on July 1, 2006.

Aeroflot used Sal as a stop on its Il-62 services from Moscow and Budapest to Dakar and Conakry in the late 1970s.[8] Cubana also operated Il-62s on the Havana-Sal-Luanda-Maputo route in the early 1980s,[9] and the Havana-Sal-Bissau-Luanda route in the late 1980s.[10]

In 1985, TACV began service to Boston, Massachusetts using a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 provided by LAM Mozambique Airlines. Boston hosts the largest Cape Verdean community in the United States. TACV flights to Boston have since been shifted to Praia International Airport. Other international destinations include inter alia Amsterdam, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, and Porto. Domestic destinations include Santiago and São Vicente.[11]

Until September 2005, it was the only airport in Cape Verde to serve international flights.

Since 2017 Sal has been a refuelling stop for the twice-weekly South Atlantic Air Bridge service operated by Air Tanker between the UK and the Falkland Islands. This is a temporary arrangement until the runway at Ascension Island is repaired which is expected to be in 2020.[12]

Facilities and transport

Terminal

Inside the terminal at Sal Airport.

Amílcar Cabral has one terminal. It is a two-story building containing check-in, waiting, and arrival areas, as well as shopping, banking, and passenger services. The second floor houses airport operations and airline offices. There are four gates, and buses (Cobus 3000s) are used to transport passengers to the aircraft stands.

Cabo Verde Express has its head office in the Concourse Hall.[13] The duty-free shop is located after passport control but before security scanning, which only takes place as you enter the boarding lounge, which is shared for all four departure gates.

Runways

The airport's main runway is 3,272 m (10,734 ft) long and is the longest in Cape Verde. It is used for long-haul flights. It was also one of the designated emergency landing strips for the U.S. Space Shuttle.[14] The second runway is 1,500 m (4,921 ft) long and was used by small planes. It is now closed for traffic.

Statistics

YearPassengersOperationsCargo (t)
2016[1]914,69611,164816.3
2017[1]1,092,78912,479617.7

Airlines and destinations

AirlinesDestinations
ASL Airlines France Seasonal charter: Paris-Charles de Gaulle[15]
Binter Canarias Gran Canaria
Binter CV Boa Vista, Praia, São Nicolau, São Vicente
Blue Panorama AirlinesSeasonal: Bergamo
Brussels Airlines Seasonal: Brussels
Cabo Verde Airlines Fortaleza, Lisbon, Milan-Malpensa, Paris-Charles de Gaulle,[15] Recife, Rome–Fiumicino,[16] Salvador da Bahia[17]
Enter Air Seasonal charter: Katowice,[18] Warsaw-Chopin[18]
LuxairSeasonal: Luxembourg
Neos Bologna, Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino, Verona
NovairSeasonal charter: Copenhagen (begins 24 October 2018),[19] Helsinki,[20] Stockholm-Arlanda[21]
Royal Air Maroc Casablanca
Smartlynx AirlinesSeasonal charter: Paris-Charles de Gaulle[15]
TAP Air Portugal Lisbon
Seasonal: Porto
Thomas Cook AirlinesManchester
Seasonal: Birmingham, London-Gatwick
Thomas Cook Airlines ScandinaviaSeasonal charter: Stockholm-Arlanda, Gothenburg, Copenhagen
TransaviaSeasonal: Amsterdam
Travel Service Seasonal charter: Prague
Travel Service Polska Seasonal charter: Katowice, Warsaw-Chopin
Travel Service Slovakia Seasonal charter: Bratislava
TUI Airways Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow (ends 20 October 2018),[22] London-Gatwick, Manchester[23]
Seasonal charter: Gothenburg,[24] Helsinki (begins 10 December 2018),[25] Stockholm-Arlanda[24]
TUI fly Belgium Brussels
Seasonal charter: Nantes (begins 20 December 2018),[26] Paris-Charles de Gaulle[26]
TUI fly Deutschland Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover, Munich, Stuttgart
Seasonal: Hamburg
TUI fly NetherlandsAmsterdam
Seasonal: Eindhoven (begins 1 November 2018)[27]
TUI fly Nordic Seasonal charter: Copenhagen[28]

Access

The airport is located on the west side of the road (EN1-SL01) linking Espargos and Santa Maria, the island's main tourist destination. There is no scheduled public transport; taxicabs, shared cars known as "aluguer", and rental cars are available.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Boletim Estatístico de Tráfego – Ano 2017" (PDF) (in Portuguese). ASA. January 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  2. ↑ "World Aero Data: AMILCAR CABRAL INTL -- GVAC". worldaerodata.com.
  3. 1 2 Ray Almeida. "A History of Ilha do Sal". Archived from the original on 9 February 2017.
  4. ↑ "OAG Schedules to Johannesburg - Effective July 1, 1983". www.departedflights.com. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  5. ↑ May, Clifford D. (1987-07-02). "FIGHTING APARTHEID DESPITE THE COST". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  6. ↑ "OAG schedules to Johannesburg International Airport - Effective October 1, 1996". www.departedflights.com. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  7. ↑ "Island stop makes SAA's Atlanta hauls longer | IOL News". Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  8. ↑ "Aeroflot timetable, 1977".
  9. ↑ "Cubana timetable, 1984".
  10. ↑ "Cubana timetable, 1989".
  11. ↑ TACV Cabo Verde Airlines International routes, airlineroutemaps.com, retrieved 2 October 2015
  12. ↑ Mercopress - South Atlantic Press Agency retrieved 18 January 2018
  13. ↑ "Contact Us." Cabo Verde Express. Retrieved on 14 December 2011.
  14. ↑ Pike, John. "SPACE SHUTTLE EMERGENCY LANDING SITES". www.globalsecurity.org.
  15. 1 2 3 "Flight Departures". parisaeroport.fr.
  16. ↑ 2018, UBM (UK) Ltd. "TACV boosts Italy service from June 2018".
  17. ↑ https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/277982/tacv-adds-salvador-da-bahia-service-from-june-2018/
  18. 1 2 "air and charter tickets". itaka.pl. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  19. ↑ "Apollo Rejser - Bestil ferie-rejser til hele verden på apollorejser.dk". www.apollorejser.dk.
  20. ↑ "Upeat lomamatkat sinulle! – Kaikki matkat Apollomatkoilta". www.apollomatkat.fi.
  21. ↑ "Resor till hela världen – boka din resa på Apollo.se". www.apollo.se.
  22. ↑ "Flight Timetable - TUI Airways". www.tui.co.uk.
  23. ↑ "Flight Timetable - TUI Airways". www.tui.co.uk.
  24. 1 2 "Only Flight". tui.se.
  25. ↑ "Only Flight". tui.fi.
  26. 1 2 "Flights". tui.fr. 28 April 2018.
  27. ↑ https://www.tui.nl/vliegtickets/
  28. ↑ "Only Flight". tui.dk.

Media related to Amílcar Cabral International Airport at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.