Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Horta Airport sits on the southwestern side of Faial Island in the Azores, serving as the principal gateway to the archipelago's Central Group of islands. A single asphalt runway, tower-controlled and radar-monitored since a 2011 upgrade, handles both scheduled airline traffic and the inter-island connections that are the lifeline of this remote Atlantic outpost.
Horta Airport is the main airfield for Faial Island and the Central Group of the Azores, operated by ANA Aeroportos de Portugal (part of the VINCI Airports group). It links Faial with Lisbon and with the smaller aerodromes on the neighbouring islands of Pico, São Jorge, Graciosa, Terceira, Flores and Corvo, making it an important hub for a sim pilot exploring the mid-Atlantic island chain. The airport's control tower, rebuilt in 2011, also oversees traffic across the wider Central and Western island groups, giving Horta an operational significance well beyond its modest single-runway layout.
The airport lies in the parish of Castelo Branco, about 9.5 km (5.9 miles) southwest of the centre of Horta town, on Faial Island in the Azores archipelago, Portugal. It sits within the airspace overseen by the Horta control tower, which since 2011 has also supervised approaches to the nearby islands of Pico, São Jorge and Graciosa using a Wide Area Multilateration system.
Horta has a single asphalt runway aligned 10/28, measuring 5,227 ft (1,595 m) and lit for night operations. There is no ILS approach available.
Pilots should expect Approach on 119.7 MHz and Tower on 118 MHz.
The airport was inaugurated on 24 August 1971 by then-President Almirante Américo Tomás. TAP Air Portugal began direct flights between Horta and Lisbon on 5 July 1985, using a Boeing 737 named Ponta Delgada. Management of the airport, along with several other Portuguese airports, was conceded to ANA Aeroportos de Portugal in December 1998, and the field was substantially remodelled and reinaugurated in December 2001, both to serve the Central Group of islands and to support domestic connectivity to Lisbon. The runway underwent grooving work in late 2009. On 28 July 2011 a refurbished control tower was inaugurated, fitted with a Wide Area Multilateration system that extended surveillance to Pico, São Jorge and Graciosa and enlarged the controllers' working area; plans were announced at the time to add satellite-based landing aids for poor-visibility conditions. Fuel supply problems affected operations on more than one occasion, including a 2009 contamination episode lasting twenty days that saw flights diverted to Ponta Delgada and Vila do Porto, and a further 2012 contamination that required refuelling stops, mainly at Lajes Field on Terceira.
Horta continues to operate as an international airport serving the Central Group of the Azores, with Azores Airlines providing scheduled service to Lisbon and SATA Air Açores connecting Horta with Corvo, Flores, Ponta Delgada and Terceira. The airport is managed by ANA Aeroportos de Portugal under VINCI Airports, which has certified Horta and the other Portuguese airports to the ACA 4+ environmental standard.