Osvaldo Vieira International Airport , also known as Bissau-Bissalanca 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 ...

that serves the city of

Bissau Bissau () is the capital, and largest city of Guinea-Bissau. Bissau had a population of 492,004. Bissau is located on the Geba River estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean, and is Guinea-Bissau's largest city, major port, and its administrative and m ...

, the capital of

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...

, as well as the Metropolitan Region of Bissau. It is the only international airport in the country.Apresentação
Aeroporto Internacional de Bissau. 2019. It is located in the Bissalanca district, in the city-sector of

Safim Safim is a city and sector in the Biombo Region of Guinea-Bissau. It has a population of 17,356 inhabitants as of the 2009 national census. The sector's land area covers 174.8 km². Safim is part of the Metropolitan Region of Bissau, a conurbat ...

, which is conurbated to Bissau.

Name

The name "

Osvaldo Vieira Osvaldo Máximo Vieira (1938 – 31 March 1974) was a pioneer of the Guinea-Bissau, Bissau-Guinean independence movement and a key military commander during the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, War of Independence. He was the cousin of Nino Viei ...

" was given in honor of one of the most prominent nationalist commanders of the

PAIGC The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde ( pt, Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde, PAIGC) is a political party in Guinea-Bissau. Originally formed to peacefully campaign for independence from ...

and FARP during the country's war of independence.

History

Before 1955, the city of Bissau depended mainly on the (now abandoned) Bolama

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 ...

, which was close to the town of Bolama, the colonial capital of Guinea until 1941. Travellers landing there still needed to take ferries to get to Bissau. The airport was opened in May 1955 receiving the name "

Francisco Craveiro Lopes Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes (; 12 April 1894 – 2 September 1964) was a Portuguese Air Force officer and politician who served as the 12th president of Portugal from 1951 to 1958. Early life and career Born in Lisbon, he was a son of ...

Airport", precisely during the visit of this Portuguese president. Despite its official name, it was generally called "Bissalanca Airport". Between 1961 and 1965, already during the

Guinea-Bissau War of Independence The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence (), or the Bissau-Guinean War of Independence, was an armed independence conflict that took place in Portuguese Guinea from 1963 to 1974. It was fought between Portugal and the African Party for the Independ ...

, it was transformed into Base Aerodrome No. 2 (AB2), and; between 1965 and 1974 at Air Base No. 12 (BA12), of the

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

. The airport had to be closed on June 7, 1998 due to intense fighting in and around Bissau. It was officially reopened in July 1999 when a

TAP 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 ...

plane carrying Prime Minister

Francisco Fadul Francisco José Fadul (born 15 December 1953) is a Bissau-Guinean politician who was Prime Minister from 3 December 1998 to 19 February 2000. He led the United Social Democratic Party (PUSD), one of the country's main political parties, from 20 ...

, along with numerous other dignitaries from both

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and Guinea-Bissau, landed at Osvaldo Vieira. On December 10, 2013, TAP Portugal suspended operations to Osvaldo Vieira International Airport after local police forces threatened the crew of Flight TP202 bound for

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 ...

and forced the crew to board 74

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s who had arrived in Bissau via

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, and who were holding

forged Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which it ...

Turkish passport Turkish passports ( tr, Türk pasaportu) are issued in accordance with the Passport Act (No. 5682) from 15 July 1950 to Turkish citizens to travel abroad. Citizens of the ''de facto'' state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) ...

s. After TAP Portugal suspended flights to Bissau in late 2013, the airport remained without flights to Lisbon until late October 2014, when

euroAtlantic Airways EuroAtlantic Airways, legally ''EuroAtlantic Airways – Transportes Aéreos S.A.'', is a Portuguese airline specialized in leasing and air charter headquartered in Sintra and based at Lisbon Airport. History Founded as Air Zarco on 23 August ...

announced a weekly flight between Bissau and Lisbon. However, TAP announced in August 2016 it would resume flights to Bissau by the end of the year.

Facilities

Osvaldo Vieira International Airport has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

, heading 03/21, with a length of . The altitude of this runway is . This runway is also one of the three in Guinea-Bissau that are paved.

Airlines and destinations

References

External links