Departure
91%
vs 95% ▼ 4
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Rabil Airport, now officially known as Aristides Pereira International Airport, serves the island of Boa Vista in Cape Verde and lies a few kilometres southeast of the island's main town, Sal Rei. Originally a modest local strip, it was rebuilt and lengthened in the mid-2000s to handle international jet traffic, and today it is a busy gateway for scheduled and charter flights from Europe. For a visiting VFR pilot it offers a single long, lit hard-surface runway and a tower service, set against the flat, arid landscape typical of Boa Vista.
Rabil Airport, now formally named Aristides Pereira International Airport in honour of Cape Verde's first president, sits on the island of Boa Vista and functions as the principal air gateway to that island. It began life as a smaller local airfield before being substantially redeveloped into an international airport, and it now handles a significant volume of scheduled and charter traffic linking Cape Verde with destinations across Europe. For a sim pilot, the field is notable for its single long, well-lit runway set in the low, sandy terrain characteristic of Boa Vista, and for its role as the island's only significant airport.
The airport is located on Boa Vista island in Cape Verde, about 5 km (3.1 miles) southeast of the island capital, Sal Rei. As an airport handling scheduled international airline traffic, it operates with a tower service.
Rabil Airport has a single physical runway, 03/21, measuring 6,880 feet in length with a hard surface, and it is lit for night operations. There is no ILS available for either runway direction.
Air traffic control is provided by Boa Vista Tower on 118.9 MHz. No instrument landing system is available at the field.
The airfield began as Rabil Airport, a local strip on Boa Vista, before undergoing a major conversion into an international airport starting in 2005; the project was completed in 2007. As part of this redevelopment the runway was extended from 1,200 to 2,100 metres (roughly 3,900 to 6,900 feet) in length and widened from 30 to 45 metres, at a project cost of 21 million euros. The airport officially opened on 31 October 2007 and was Cape Verde's third international airport at the time. On 19 November 2011 it was renamed Aristides Pereira International Airport as a tribute to Aristides Pereira, the first president of Cape Verde.
The airport is operated under a concession by Vinci Airports, alongside its subsidiary ANA-Aeroportos de Portugal, following an agreement signed with the Cape Verdean government in 2023 covering funding, operation, maintenance and modernisation of the airport for 40 years. It remains one of the busiest airports in Cape Verde, handling scheduled and seasonal charter services connecting Boa Vista with numerous European cities.
