Ricardo de Abreu made this Saturday the balance of the visit that the President, João Lourenço, carried out to the construction works of the new international airport of Luanda, started in 2007, located in the commune of Bom Jesus, in the municipality of Icolo e Bengo, 30 kilometers from Luanda.
"The [financial] limit that we have for the completion of this project was reached by the Angolan executive in 2018, and is around 1,400 million dollars, at this time we have an execution level of around 40 percent of that amount and now we need continue financial execution so that the pace of physical execution does not stop," said Ricardo de Abreu.
According to the minister, this is the limit in terms of public funding, although there is a set of infrastructures to support the airport's activity, which will be implemented as part of the intervention of the private sector.
The certification process will begin in June and the Government will count on the support of ICAL, the International Civil Aviation organization, whose seal will allow Angola to place its new airport at the level of compliance and international prominence.
The official stressed that financial difficulties of the previous promoter of the project contributed to the delay of the work, with the State ensuring the sources of funding to complete the project were only activated in 2020.
"However, in that period we still had the pandemic that in fact limited the level of production of this work, which would already be at a much more advanced stage if it weren't for these sets of events, but I think we are in a phase of consolidation, of cruising speed", indicated.
The holder of the Transport portfolio stressed that the infrastructure certification process, starting in June, will be the first test flight, followed by others to ensure the final certification of the airport, at the end of 2023, and opening to international airlines with connections to or from Luanda, and to TAAG, the national airline.
"It was a positive visit, there are clear advances, we are at a very advanced stage of the work, we cannot lose the rhythm and for that we need to count on all the actors of the multisectoral commission, so that we can actually have a project here that we can be proud of everyone", he said.
Regarding the current international airport of Luanda, 4 de Fevereiro, Ricardo de Abreu said that there is no prospect of closing it and should continue with the operation, even after the new airport starts operating.
"We believe that all the work we have done on structural reforms in the sector and what could be the growth potential of the civil aviation sector in Angola, allows us to think about having two airports", he stressed.
According to Ricardo de Abreu, in the future Luanda international airport there will be, in addition to international flights, domestic flights, while the current 4 de Fevereiro could be used for executive aviation.
As for accesses, Ricardo de Abreu considered it "a critical issue", with rail and road projects underway.
