Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport — Luanda (Ícolo e Bengo), Angola

Angola opened one of Africa's more ambitious new airports in the years following its long civil war's economic recovery, moving Luanda's main air traffic away from the cramped 4 de Fevereiro Airport in the city center. NBJ takes its name from Agostinho Neto, the poet and physician who became Angola's first president after independence from Portugal in 1975, and sits in the Ícolo e Bengo area outside the capital rather than within Luanda proper. Built with a much larger footprint and modern cargo facilities than its predecessor, the airport is intended to anchor TAAG Angola Airlines' long-haul network and position Luanda as a connecting point between southern Africa, Europe, and Brazil, with which Angola shares deep historical and linguistic ties. Luanda itself has grown rapidly on oil wealth into one of the costlier cities in Africa for expatriates, and the new airport reflects ambitions to match that growth with modern infrastructure serving both business and returning diaspora travelers.