Speaking to the Lusa agency, Carlos Borges said that the beginning of the certification process will be marked by the experimental flight that will take place on Friday, at the new Luanda international airport, located in Bom Jesus, in the municipality of Icolo and Bengo, whose works are nearing completion.
The Secretary of State for the Civil, Maritime and Port Aviation sectors stressed that it is also the Government's objective with this flight, "to make known an infrastructure that was closed and away from the citizen".
According to Carlos Borges, this experimental flight will be used to test the runway, the weather conditions, the necessary signaling for landing, that is, a set of technical aspects that have already been prepared since last January.
"The certification process is carried out by a specialized team, and will have the support of some relevant bodies, such as ICAL itself, which is the highest certification entity in terms of civil aviation at an international level", he said.
This certification work, he added, will extend throughout 2023, but Angola would like it "to be completed that year, at worst, in the first quarter of 2024".
"It is a large infrastructure, it has major maintenance challenges", stressed the Angolan official, stressing that the operation of the new Luanda international airport will be a fundamental instrument for the development of Angola.
The new airport, named after the first President of Angola, was designed to receive 15 million passengers a year, and the works started in 2007, with some interruptions in between, should be completed in the first quarter of 2023.
The experimental flight will be carried out by the national airline, TAAG, which should land at the new airport at 12:35 pm, with departure scheduled for 3:00 pm.
