The new Dr. António Agostinho Neto International Airport (AIA) opened to international traffic in 2024 and saw its first full year of operations in 2025 with the relocation of TAAG Angola Airlines and most major foreign carriers.
At 15 million annual passenger capacity, A380-ready runway infrastructure, and a substantially modernized terminal experience, AIA is the largest airport in Lusophone Africa and one of the largest on the Atlantic coast of Africa generally. For business travelers, the practical impact is large: international arrival times have compressed dramatically; immigration processing under the visa-free regime is fast; and the road infrastructure linking AIA to Talatona — Luanda’s primary business district — is a dedicated highway connection.
What’s still missing
Direct connectivity from North America remains a gap. Most US-origin business travelers route through Lisbon, Frankfurt, or Addis Ababa. New direct service from European hubs is robust, with Lufthansa, TAP, Air France, KLM, Emirates, Qatar, Turkish, and Ethiopian all serving AIA in 2026. For the MICE sector specifically, the lack of direct US service is the single most significant lift remaining.