Osvaldo Vieira International Airport , also known as Bissau-Bissalanca Airport, is an
international airport that serves the city of
Bissau, 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](_blank)
Aeroporto Internacional de Bissau. 2019.
It is located in the Bissalanca district, in the city-sector of
Safim, 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 surfa ...
, 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, 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.
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 opera ...
plane carrying Prime Minister
Francisco Fadul, 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 and forced the crew to board 74
Syrian
refugees 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 t ...
and
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
, 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 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, concre ...
, 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
See also
*
List of airports in Guinea-Bissau
References
External links
{{authority control
Airports in Guinea-Bissau
Buildings and structures in Bissau