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. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

near

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

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

Maia Maia (; Ancient Greek: Μαῖα; also spelled Maie, ; ), 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 daughter of A ...

Matosinhos Matosinhos () is a City#Portugal, city and a Concelho, municipality in the district of Porto District, Porto in Portugal. The municipality covers an area of approximately and had 172,557 inhabitants in 2021. It is bordered by the municipalities o ...

and

Vila do Conde Vila do Conde (, ; "the Count's Town") is a municipality in the Norte Region, Portugal, 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 ...

. The airport is run by ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal and 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 previously Portela Airport, is an international airport located northeast of the Baixa Pombalina, historical city centre of Lisbon, Portugal. With more than 35 million passengers per yea ...

and before Faro Airport. 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 airlin ...

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish Low-cost carrier#Ultra low-cost carrier, ultra low-cost airline group headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. The parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, includes subsidiaries Ryanair , Malta Air, Buzz (Ryanair), Buzz ...

TAP Air Portugal TAP Air Portugal is the flag carrier of Portugal, headquartered at Lisbon Airport which also serves as its airline hub, hub. TAP – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses – has been a member of the Star Alliance since 2005 and operates on average 2, ...

and its subsidiary TAP Express.

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 and

Lavra A lavra or laura (; 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. Lavra monasteries operate within the Orthodox and other Eastern Chri ...

(in Matosinhos); Aveleda and Vilar do Pinheiro (Vila do Conde); and Vila Nova da Telha and Moreira (Maia). 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 Portugal, Portuguese locality and suburb in the Moreira (Maia), Moreira parish, in the Maia Municipality of the Grande Porto Subregion, Greater Porto subregion. The Porto Airport (OPO) (Sá Car ...

("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, who died in a plane crash when he was traveling to this airport on 4 December 1980. Along with the airports in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, Faro,

Ponta Delgada Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality (''concelho'') and executive capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67,2 ...

, Santa Maria, Horta,

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

, 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 an airport operator in Portugal owned by Vinci Airports. Among others, it operates Portugal's largest airport, Lisbon Airport. The initialism "ANA" stands for ''Aeroportos e Navegação Aérea'', Portuguese for "A ...

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 passengers in a 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

Passenger numbers

Busiest routes

Ground transport

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

Metro

The airport is served by Aeroporto station, on line E of the

Porto Metro The Porto Metro () is a light rail network in Porto, Portugal and a key part of the city's public transport system. Having a semi-metro alignment, it runs underground in central Porto and above ground into the city's suburbs while using low-fl ...

. 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 Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is th ...

, and other urban centres of Greater Porto: in ''Verdes'' station to Vila do Conde and

Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim () is a Portugal, Portuguese city in Norte Region, Portugal, 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 River, Minho ...

(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. There is also bus service to/from

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

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

Shuttle

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

Further proposals

As of 2020, the proposed Porto–Vigo high-speed rail line would be built via the airport.

Accidents and incidents

*On April 27, 2021 a

FedEx FedEx Corporation, originally known as Federal Express Corporation, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company specializing in Package delivery, transportation, e-commerce, and ...

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 rated the incursion a "serious incident" and initiated a safety investigation.

References

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 Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

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