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Alverca Air Base sits on the north bank of the Tagus at Vila Franca de Xira, just north-east of Lisbon, and has been linked with Portuguese aviation since the First World War. Today it functions as a Portuguese Air Force logistical support and maintenance airfield, home to the OGMA aerospace works, rather than a base for operational squadrons, and it is of interest to sim pilots chiefly for its long single runway and its rich aviation heritage.
Alverca Air Base is a Portuguese Air Force airfield at Alverca do Ribatejo, in the municipality of Vila Franca de Xira on the Tagus estuary north-east of Lisbon. It has never housed flying squadrons, instead serving as a logistical support and maintenance airfield, and is closely tied to the aerospace company OGMA, whose facility is based on the field. For a virtual pilot the appeal lies less in traffic and more in the field's unusual history and its very long single runway.
The airfield lies beside the Tagus River at Vila Franca de Xira, close to the Lisbon metropolitan area and not far from Lisbon's main international airport. It is operated by the Portuguese Air Force as a logistical support base rather than a fighter or transport squadron station.
Alverca has a single physical runway, 04/22, some 8,195 feet long with a hard surface and runway lighting. There is no ILS approach available.
Radio communications are provided on Ground on 138.8 MHz and Tower on 119.225 MHz. No instrument landing system is available at the field.
The base lies immediately alongside the Tagus River at Vila Franca de Xira, which forms an obvious and reliable landmark for locating the field from the air, with the city of Alverca do Ribatejo itself adjoining the airfield boundary.
A military air base was established at Alverca in 1918, and the site went on to house the first international airport in Portugal, a role it retained until the opening of Lisbon's new airport in 1942. The Portuguese Air Force base at Alverca has never been home to operational squadrons, instead always serving as a logistical support airfield for the service. In June 1979 Philippe Cousteau, son of the oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, died when the flying boat he was piloting crashed into the Tagus in the vicinity of Alverca.
The airfield today hosts the aerospace maintenance company OGMA, the Portuguese Air Force's General Storage unit, the Air Force Aerodrome Engineering Unit, and a branch exhibition of the Museu do Ar, the Portuguese air museum (whose main exhibition is at Sintra Air Base). It continues to function purely as a logistical and maintenance support base for the Air Force rather than as a base for flying squadrons.
