ozymandias24

The current international and domestic passenger airport in Angola's capital Luanda is Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport (Portuguese: Aeroporto Internacional 4 de Fevereiro - IATA: LAD). This has been around since the 1950s, and is very central, being around 3.5km south-east of Luanda's city center, making it difficult to expand.

There has been a new airport under construction 40km to the south-east of the capital since about 2006-7. In fact, it is so far to the south-east that it's technically not in Luanda Province, it's over the border in Bengo Province. Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport (referred to as AIAAN, although this is not the official IATA code yet) was finally inaugurated on 10 November 2023, at a cost of over USD3.8 billion.

The first commercial cargo flight landed there on 19 December 2023. AIAAN is currently only taking cargo flights, but starting in March 2024 the plan is for domestic flights to move over there, and then by July 2024 they want all the international flights moved over from LAD. AIAAN will be able to handle 15 million travelers annually - 10 million international and 5 million domestic.

I look forward to landing there at some stage later this year, assuming they stay on-track with the switchover plans!

To see some more photos of this African mega-project, see here on Skyscraper City (where the three images below came from).

Swanhunter

Having just flown through Luanda, this seems a very big upgrade in capacity!

ozymandias24

Indeed! It should be good news for all those international transit passengers over the past few years, who have been taking advantage of cheap TAAG flights from Europe to Southern Africa (mainly South Africa) or Brazil, with a stop in Luanda. Transit through LAD wasn't much fun.

cargueiro

Menzies has won the handling contract at AIAAN.

https://menziesaviation.com/news/men...joint-venture/

The big challenge I see is that there are no hotels near the new airport or hospitals. The nearest 'five' star is the Talatona Convention hotel. It would take 60 to 90 minutes in good traffic to get there. I don't think there are any suitable hotels for crew nearer.

I imagine there is a hospital in Zango. There is a small hospital in Viana. There is also one in Camama. But the only vaguely decent ones are in the city.

There is also no transportation. Driving from the city it could take anything from an hour to three hours to get to AIAAN depending on traffic.

I think there will be a reluctance among stakeholders to move to the new airport until hotels, hospitals and transport are improved.

Voda_boy

Hello
I am due to arrive in LAD in mid-May (on TAP from LIS). It's still scheduled for LAD so I'm assuming it will be the existing/original airport.

I need a hotel for 1 night only, ideally near the port. Does anyone have any experiences or advice on (a) how it is to arrive into LAD, is it a fairly standard experience, or is there anything I should watch out for (b) any inexpensive but comfortable/safe hotels around the sea port.

Appreciate this post is slightly OT, but there aren't many forums on Luanda and thought it better to post here than create a new topic.

Thanks!

cargueiro

The obvious place to stay would be the Hotel Presidente Luanda as it is walking distance to the Port. It however remains an expensive place to stay and I think there are better options.

The Intercontinental is nicer and is also close. The Epic Sana is also an option but is probsbly the most expensive hotel in Luanda. If you want cheaper options the Tropico or Continental might be worth considering. Traffic isn't too bad these days in Luanda and with ride hailing apps like Heetch (probably the most popular in Angola) you can easily get to the port from these hotels. The Thompson Art House Hotel on the Ilha is basic and cheap and would be an option if on tight budget.

There are a bunch of taxis at airport who will transfer you. It is difficult to use Heetch at airport. Alternatively you can pay a premium and have your hotel send a car.