Beja Airport ( pt, Aeroporto de Beja; ) is a Portuguese

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

that opened doors to civilian flights on April 15, 2011.

Location

Beja Airport, located northwest of Beja, is away from

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, from Faro and less than from

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Beja is a city in the

Beja Municipality Beja () is a city and a municipality in the Alentejo region, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 35,854, in an area of . The city proper had a population of 21,658 in 2001. The municipality is the capital of the Beja District. The present Mayor ...

in the

Alentejo Region Alentejo Region () is one of the seven NUTS 2 regions of Portugal. It covers all of the historical Alentejo Province and part of the historical Ribatejo and Estremadura provinces. The greater region is defined within Portugal by the land bo ...

, Portugal. The municipality has a total area of and a total population of 34,970 inhabitants. The city proper has a population of 21,658.

History

An airbase was established on 21 October 1964, originally built to serve as a training facility for the West

German Air Force The German Air Force (german: Luftwaffe, lit=air weapon or air arm, ) is the aerial warfare branch of the , the armed forces of Germany. The German Air Force (as part of the ''Bundeswehr'') was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War a ...

, due to airspace limitations within West Germany. Until 1993, it was used particularly for weapons training, and in 1987 the

Portuguese Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = 1 July , equipment = , equipment_label ...

's 103 Squadron and its

Lockheed T-33 The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then d ...

and Northrop T-38 aircraft was relocated from Montijo. After their arrival, the base started to host a mixed array of fixed and rotary-wing trainers, as well as maritime patrol aircraft. Along with the airports in Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Funchal (Madeira), Porto Santo, Flores, Santa Maria, Ponta Delgada and Horta, the airport's concessions to provide support to civil aviation was conceded to

ANA Aeroportos de Portugal ANA Aeroportos de Portugal is the airport authority of Portugal. The authority manages various airports including Portugal's largest airport, Lisbon Airport. The authority has its head office in Building 120 on the grounds of the airport. Histor ...

on 18 December 1998, under provisions of decree 404/98. With this concession, ANA was also provided to the planning, development and construction of future infrastructures. In 2011, a new civilian terminal was built and Beja became a dual-use military-civilian airport, aiming to attract low-cost carriers. The inaugural flight to

Praia Praia (, Portuguese language, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.

, Cape Verde, took place on 13 April 2011. There were also charter flights to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. In spite of being the only Portuguese airport in

Alentejo Alentejo ( , ) is a geographical, historical, and cultural region of south–central and southern Portugal. In Portuguese, its name means "beyond () the Tagus river" (''Tejo''). Alentejo includes the regions of Alto Alentejo and Baixo Alent ...

—the biggest Portuguese region, with an area comparable to the size of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

—the airport failed to attract the attention of

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

s and has never had any scheduled regular flights. As of September 2012, plans to reconvert it into cargo use are under discussion. It may possibly be a logistics platform between the goods that are shipped to the nearby

Port of Sines The Port of Sines is the largest artificial port in Portugal, and a deep water port, natural backgrounds to -28 m ZH with specialized terminals that allow the movement of different types of goods. Besides being the main port on the Atlantic seaboa ...

and the whole of Europe. In September 2013, it was announced that

Aigle Azur Aigle Azur was a French airline based and headquartered at Paris Orly Airport. The airline operated scheduled flights from France to 21 destinations across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, with a fleet of Airbus A320 family and A330 airc ...

would start seasonal flights from Paris to Beja but the airline filed for bankruptcy and was placed in

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

on 2 September 2019. As of September 2012, the future of the airport remains uncertain. The authorities are studying the possibility of reconverting the airport to cargo use. While the airport has no scheduled passenger flights, it is used by Hi Fly and its Maltese subsidiary for parking aircraft. A related sister company is also building a new hangar at the airport for the maintenance of both Hi Fly planes and third-party Airbus aircraft, supplementing its operations at Humberto Delgado Airport.

References

External links

Official website
* Space Shuttle abort modes#Emergency landing sites {{authority control Airports in Portugal Buildings and structures in Beja, Portugal

Location

History

See also

References

External links