Beja Airport Aeroporto de Beja | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Owner | Government of Portugal | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | ANA Aeroportos de Portugal | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Beja, Portugal | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 636 ft / 194 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 38°04′44″N007°55′57″W / 38.07889°N 7.93250°W | ||||||||||||||
| Website | ana.pt | ||||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||||
  LPBJ Location within Portugal | |||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2018) | |||||||||||||||
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Beja Airport (Portuguese : Aeroporto de Beja; IATA : BYJ, ICAO : LPBJ) is a Portuguese airport [1] that opened doors to civilian flights on April 15, 2011.
Beja Airport, located 9 km (5.6 mi) northwest of Beja, [1] is 150 km (93 mi) away from Lisbon, 120 kilometres (75 mi) from Faro and less than 60 km (37 mi) from Spain. Beja is a city in the Beja Municipality in the Alentejo Region, Portugal. The municipality has a total area of 1,147.1 km2 (442.9 sq mi) and a total population of 34,970 inhabitants. The city proper has a population of 21,658.
An airbase was established on 21 October 1964, originally built to serve as a training facility for the West German Air Force, due to airspace limitations within West Germany. Until 1993, it was used particularly for weapons training, and in 1987 the Portuguese Air Force's 103 Squadron and its Lockheed T-33 and Northrop T-38 aircraft was relocated from Montijo. [2] After their arrival, the base started to host a mixed array of fixed and rotary-wing trainers, as well as maritime patrol aircraft.
Along with the airports in Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Funchal (Madeira), Porto Santo, Flores, Santa Maria, Ponta Delgada and Horta, the airport's concessions to provide support to civil aviation was conceded to ANA Aeroportos de Portugal on 18 December 1998, under provisions of decree 404/98. [3] With this concession, ANA was also provided to the planning, development and construction of future infrastructures. [3]
In 2011, a new civilian terminal was built and Beja became a dual-use military-civilian airport, aiming to attract low-cost carriers. The inaugural flight to Praia, Cape Verde, took place on 13 April 2011. [4] There were also charter flights to the United Kingdom.
In spite of being the only Portuguese airport in Alentejo —the biggest Portuguese region, with an area comparable to the size of Belgium —the airport failed to attract the attention of low-cost carriers and has never had any scheduled regular flights. As of September 2012, plans to reconvert it into cargo use are under discussion. It may possibly be a logistics platform between the goods that are shipped to the nearby Port of Sines and the whole of Europe.
In September 2013, it was announced that Aigle Azur would start seasonal flights from Paris to Beja but the airline filed for bankruptcy and was placed in receivership on 2 September 2019. As of September 2012, the future of the airport remains uncertain. The authorities are studying the possibility of reconverting the airport to cargo use.
While the airport has no scheduled passenger flights, it occasionally operates charter flights. [5] The airport is primarily used by Hi Fly and its Maltese subsidiary for parking aircraft. A related sister company is also building a new hangar at the airport for the maintenance of both Hi Fly planes and third-party Airbus aircraft, supplementing its operations at Humberto Delgado Airport. [6]
Transport in Portugal is well-developed and diversified. Portugal has a 68,732 km (42,708 mi) network of roads, of which almost 3,000 km (1,864 mi) are part of a 44 motorways system. Brisa is the largest highway management concessionaire. With 89,015 km2, Continental Portugal has 4 international airports located near Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Beja. The national railway system service is provided by Comboios de Portugal. The major seaports are located in Leixões, Aveiro, Figueira da Foz, Lisbon, Setúbal, Sines and Faro.
Viracopos – Campinas International Airport is an international airport serving the municipality of Campinas, in the state of São Paulo. On 6 January 1987, the airport name was officially normalised to its present form. It is named after the neighbourhood where it is located.
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Media related to Beja Airport at Wikimedia Commons
