Airport type Civil Location Boa Vista, Cape Verde Website www.asa.cv Code BVC Phone +238 251 10 70 | Serves Sal Rei Elevation AMSL 69 ft / 21 m Address Rabil, Cape Verde Elevation 21 m | |
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Operator Empresa nacional de Aeroportos e Segurança Aérea (ASA) | ||
Aristides Pereira International Airport (Portuguese Aeroporto Internacional Aristides Pereira) (IATA: BVC, ICAO: GVBA) is an airport in Cape Verde located on the island of Boa Vista, about 5 km southeast of the island capital Sal Rei. It is the third busiest airport in the country.
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History
The airport started operating in the late-20th century, it was converted from an aerodrome in 2002. Construction started in 2005, the project was founded by the Spanish engineering company INECO, the runway was extended from 1,200 to 2,100 meters and was paved only in 2007. Aristides Pereira Airport has started international operations in July 2007, with a new runway (2,100m), making it the newest international airport on the Cape Verde Islands.
On 13 October 2007, TACV made a test flight from Amílcar Cabral International Airport to Rabil Airport to conclude the operational certification of the new airport. On 31 October 2007, TACV officially became the first airline to operate a jet aircraft (Boeing 757-200 [D4-CBG]) to Rabil Airport, an inaugural flight from Praia Airport. On 19 December 2007 a Livingston Airlines Airbus A321-200 (EI-LVA) made the first international arrival to Rabil from Verona, Italy. The passengers were greeted with "morabeza" by Cape Verdeans.
The airport was originally named Rabil Airport, but on 19 November 2011 it was renamed as a tribute to the first president of Cape Verde, Aristides Pereira.
In 2012, it carried 425,701 passengers making it the third most used in the country. In 2013 it carried 448,700 passengers., it also had 4,758 air operations and transported 267 tonnes of cargo.
Recently the airport terminal went on a little expansion in 2014.
Architecture
Its architecture at the front of the terminal is a mixture Portuguese origin, Spanish and Moorish architectural elements and has peach-rose stone bricks with two arches, entrance and exit doors and a yellow exterior where the airport name is and in the south are three melon colored exteriors with two fudge-brown exteriors inbetween and are bordered with a stone-brick outer wall.
On its opposite sides of the terminal, features narrow semicircular windows at one part, at the other side is with a yellow facade and all stone brick and another entrance/exit doors. and two melon exterior with a yellow doorlike exterior, in the middle are colored brown and white. On another side are two stone brick arches, entrance and exit door with a wider separation and on the left, a yellow exterior, one that is a doorlike exterior with a melon exterior on top and has two wall like edges, on the opposite side has a brown-white and melon-yellow exteriors with a stone brick door, that section are used for airport facilities, on the other side is cargo.