Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport or simply Porto Airport (formerly ''Pedras Rubras Airport'') is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...

near

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

(Oporto), Portugal. It is located northwest of the Clérigos Tower in the centre of Porto, in the municipalities of

Maia Maia (; Ancient Greek: Μαῖα; also spelled Maie, ; la, Maia), in ancient Greek religion and mythology, is one of the Pleiades and the mother of Hermes, one of the major Greek gods, by Zeus, the king of Olympus. Family Maia is the daugh ...

Matosinhos Matosinhos, Porto, Portugal () is a city and a municipality in the northern Porto district of Portugal, bordered in the south by the city of Porto (8 km from the city centre). The population in 2011 was 175,478, and covered an area of approx ...

and

Vila do Conde Vila do Conde (, ; "the Count's Town") is a municipality in the Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 79,533, in an area of 149.03 km². The urbanized area of Vila do Conde, which includes the parishes of Vila do Conde, Azurar ...

and is run by

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. History ...

. The airport is currently the second-busiest in the country, based on aircraft operations; and the second-busiest in passengers, based on Aeroportos de Portugal traffic statistics, after

Lisbon Airport Humberto Delgado Airport , informally Lisbon Airport and formally Portela Airport, is an international airport located northeast of the city centre of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. The airport is the main international gateway to Portugal. ...

and before

Faro Airport Faro Airport ( pt, Aeroporto de Faro, ), officially Gago Coutinho Airport (''Aeroporto Gago Coutinho''), is located westAI of Faro in Portugal. The airport opened in July 1965 being the main gateway to the year-round resort region of the Al ...

. The airport is a base for

easyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airli ...

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family ...

TAP Air Portugal TAP Air Portugal is the currently state-owned flag carrier airline of Portugal, headquartered at Lisbon Airport which also serves as its hub. TAP – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses – has been a member of the Star Alliance since 2005 and oper ...

and its subsidiary

TAP Express TAP Express (TAP standing for ''Transportes Aéreos Portugueses'') is a Portugal, Portuguese regional airline brand name for TAP Air Portugal which operates short and medium-haul routes. TAP Air Portugal's lone wholly owned regional airline, Por ...

Location

The airport is surrounded by the municipalities of

(to the south and west) and

(to the north) and

(to the east). It covers the parishes of Santa Cruz do Bispo,

Perafita Perafita is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Osona in Catalonia, Spain. In 2015, the municipality voted to join a proposed new comarca of Lluçanès Lluçanès () is a natural region transitioning between the Plain of Vic and Berguedà, in ...

and

Lavra A lavra or laura ( el, Λαύρα; Cyrillic: Ла́вра) is a type of monastery consisting of a cluster of cells or caves for hermits, with a church and sometimes a refectory at the center. It is erected within the Orthodox and other Eastern Chr ...

(in Matosinhos); Aveleda and Vilar do Pinheiro (Vila do Conde); and Vila Nova da Telha and

Moreira Moreira may refer to: Places * Moreira (Maia), a parish in Maia Municipality, northern Portugal * , a parish in Monção Municipality, northern Portugal * , a parish in Nelas Municipality, central Portugal People

*Moreira (name), given name ...

(Maia).ANA (January 2007), p. 1 It includes an area of between in the extreme south and in the north. The southern portion of the airport intersects the hydrographic watershed of the Leça River, while the north is crossed by effluents of Onda River.

History

The airport around Porto opened in 1945 and was initially known as ''Pedras Rubras Airport'', after the name for the locality where the airport is located:

Pedras Rubras Pedras Rubras (Portuguese for ''Reddish stones'') is a Portuguese locality and suburb in the Moreira parish, in the Maia Municipality of the Greater Porto subregion. The Porto Airport (OPO) (Sá Carneiro International Airport Francisco Sá Carn ...

("red rocks"). It is still known by this name in the region. The land on which the airport was built was originally agricultural, characterised by rich soils that permitted the cultivation of various cereals. It was renamed in 1990 after former Portuguese prime minister,

Francisco de Sá Carneiro Francisco Manuel Lumbrales de Sá Carneiro, GCTE, GCC, GCL (; 19 July 19344 December 1980) was a Portuguese politician, Prime Minister of Portugal for most of 1980, and founder of the Social Democratic Party. He only held office of Prime Mi ...

, who died in a plane crash when he was traveling to this airport on 4 December 1980. Along with the airports in Lisbon, Faro, Ponta Delgada, Santa Maria, Horta, Flores, Madeira, and Porto Santo, the airport's concessions to provide support to civil aviation were 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. History ...

on 18 December 1998, under provisions of decree 404/98. With this concession, ANA became responsible for the planning, development and construction of future infrastructure. A new terminal building, designed by Portuguese firm ICQ, was built between 2003 and 2006, and became operational in the last quarter of 2006. Porto Airport reached ten million passenger per year for the first time on 6 December 2017.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled direct passenger flights at Porto Airport:

Cargo

Statistics

Ground transport

Besides taxi services and the road link, there are several public transportation links available:

Metro

The airport is served by Line E of the

Porto Metro The Porto Metro ( pt, Metro do Porto), part of the public transport (mass transit) system of Porto, Portugal, is a light rail network that runs underground in central Porto and above ground into the city's suburbs. ''Metro do Porto S.A.'' was f ...

. The station has three platforms and the trains leave the arrival platform and reverse into one of the departure platforms. The service links the airport to Porto city center and by transfer in ''Trindade'' station to high-speed trains at

Campanhã Campanhã () is a Portuguese ''freguesia'' ("civil parish"), located in the city of Porto. The population in 2011 was 32,659,Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim (, ) is a Portuguese city in Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho and Douro rivers. In 2001, there were 63,470 ...

(using line B), ''Fonte do Cuco'' station to

(line C), ''Senhora da Hora'' station to Matosinhos (line A), and ''Trindade'' station to V.N.Gaia (line D) and to Rio Tinto/Fânzeres (line F).

Car

Sá Carneiro airport is accessible via the A41 and A28 motorways, but also the EN13 highway (using the EN107 accessway). These roadways lead to drop-off and pick-up areas and short and long-stay car parks. It can also be reached by the A4 motorway through the VRI accessway.

Bus

STCP buses also link the airport and the city. There is also a bus that operates all night from Porto city centre to the airport. Also there is a bus service to/from

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Penins ...

( Galicia/Spain) twice a day on weekdays, and once a day during the weekend.

Shuttle

The GetBUS shuttle provides 50 min direct connections to the towns of Braga and Guimarães.

Further proposals

The proposed Porto–Vigo high-speed rail line would be built via the airport.

Accolades

Airports Council International Airports Council International (ACI) is an organization of airport authorities aimed at unifying industry practices for airport standards. Established in 1991, its headquarters (ACI World) are based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and its members ...

Airport Service Quality Awards voted the airport ''Best Airport in Europe'' in 2007. Additionally, it has placed in the top three of ''Best Airport in Europe'' a further nine times – winning second place in 2010, and third place in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Accidents and incidents

*On April 27, 2021 a

FedEx FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

cargo jet was cleared for takeoff while a ground vehicle was on the runway, coming within four seconds of collision before taking off over it. The

Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Accidents in Civil Aviation and Rail The Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Accidents in Civil Aviation and Rail (''Gabinete de Prevenção e Investição de Acidentes com Aeronaves e de Acidentes Ferroviários'', GPIAAF, "Office of Prevention and Investigation of Aircraf ...

rated the

incursion ''Incursion'' is a science fiction roleplaying game created by Richard Tucholka and published by Tri Tac Games in 1992. Overview The player characters are humans abducted by alien slave traders. Together, with other extraterrestrial slaves, ...

a "serious incident" and initiated a safety investigation. YouTube channel 'VASAviation' has a recorded instance of the communications between Porto's Tower and the aircraft involved, FedEx Contractor Flight 'Quality 4959' Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Francisco De Sa Carneiro Airport Airports in Portugal

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 ...

Buildings and structures in Porto District Modernist architecture in Portugal 1945 establishments in Portugal Airports established in 1945