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Page last updated at 17:04 GMT, Friday, 16 January 2009

Angola upgrade airports for CAN

Angola squad
Angola will host the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations

Angola will spend US$400m revamping its airports before hosting the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.

Luanda's 40-year-old Fourth of February airport will be upgraded for US$74m which will give it capacity for 3.6m passengers a year.

The rest of the money will be used to revamp and rebuild all of Angola's other airports ahead of the January 2010 football competition.

$130 million and $99 million will go to the new airports at Benguela and Lubango.

"From December, the image of this airport is going to be completely different," Joaquim Jose Neves da Cunha, director general of Luanda's airport said.

"The airport is old and has many technical problems and this is an opportunity to completely remodel it."

The Luanda airport will be modernised by introducing 28 check-in desks, instead of currrent 12, while its boarding gates will also be enlarged.

More baggage claim belts will be added, parking lots expanded to accommodate 650 cars, and the runway redesigned to reduce congestion.

Work on the airport has already begun and is scheduled for completion by the end of this year.

Angola, a former Portuguese colony, endured almost three decades of war which destroyed most of its infrastructure.

The conflict ended in 2002 and the country is now in a reconstruction frenzy.

Buoyed by oil income and loans from China, the country is a mass of building sites and new housing projects.

Angola, which vies with Nigeria to be the continent's largest oil producer, has seen a massive influx of international workers into the country and airlines are fighting for landing spots.

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see also
Caf happy with Angola progress
13 Aug 08 |  African
Angola to host 2010 Nations Cup
04 Sep 06 |  African
Angola 'favoured' in 2010 race
03 Sep 06 |  African


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