Departure
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Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport is Portugal's second-busiest airport, sited a few miles north of Porto and serving the whole of the country's northern region. Named after the Portuguese prime minister who died in a 1980 plane crash, it has grown from a small post-war civil aerodrome into a major international gateway with full radar and ILS approach facilities.
Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport lies close to Porto, Portugal's second city, and functions as the principal air gateway to the north of the country. It is operated by ANA Aeroportos de Portugal and takes its name from Francisco de Sá Carneiro, the Portuguese prime minister who was killed in a plane crash in 1980. For a simulator pilot the field offers a substantial commercial operation with an ILS-equipped runway, full ATC services and a busy mix of airline and low-cost traffic, making it an interesting destination for both airliner and general aviation flights into a major European city airport.
The airport sits north of Porto city centre, within the area historically known as Pedras Rubras, and lies in controlled airspace with a dedicated approach, tower and delivery service. It is the main airport for the densely populated Greater Porto area, which also includes Maia, Matosinhos and Vila do Conde.
The airport has a single physical runway, 17/35, a hard-surfaced and lit runway measuring approximately 10,435 to 10,925 feet in length depending on threshold. Runway 17 is equipped with an ILS for instrument approaches. Field elevation is 187 feet.
Pilots can expect to work Porto Approach on 121.105 MHz, Porto Tower on 118.005 MHz and Porto Delivery on 118.93 MHz, with ATIS broadcast on 124.305 MHz. Runway 17 is served by an ILS for instrument approaches.
The airport was inaugurated on 3 December 1945 under the name Aeroporto de Pedras Rubras, taking over civil operations from the small military aerodrome at Espinho, which had previously handled flights to Porto. The first flight received was from Lisbon, operated by the Portuguese carrier Companhia de Transportes Aéreos. The first international flight followed in 1956, though regular international services, to London, did not begin until the early 1970s, a period that also saw the runway extended and a cargo terminal added. In 1990, with the construction of a new terminal, the airport was renamed Aeroporto Francisco Sá Carneiro in honour of the Portuguese prime minister who died on 4 December 1980 when the Cessna 421 carrying him from Lisbon to Porto crashed at Camarate, Loures, shortly after takeoff; his defence minister, Adelino Amaro da Costa, also died in the crash. The current terminal building was inaugurated on 15 October 2005 after a five-year construction project.
The airport operates as Portugal's second-largest, serving as a base for the national carrier TAP and its subsidiary Portugália. Ryanair established a base at the field in 2009, followed by Easyjet in March 2015, and around twenty airlines together offer services to some 65 destinations. A staged redevelopment plan has been drawn up to expand the terminal, taxiways, apron and runway infrastructure to accommodate future growth in traffic.
