Luanda Airport

I travelled through Luanda on business a while back and it is one hell of an experience. I was lucky that I arrived on a 2/3rds empty plane so getting through arrivals was relatively quick but another 50-100 people and it would have been hell. 35c+ mosquitos a plenty and surly passport control staff. Leaving was even more bizzare. You have to check in 4 or 5 hours before your flight again in a building with no apparent air conditioning. After this I was bribed ($20) to get through customs without hassle about my hand luggage and you then wait at the one bar/cafe for 3 hours for your flight. One positive thing at Luanda is your fellow passengers. Bonded by the grim but occasionally amusing experience everybody seemed ridiculously friendly and I ended up spending an entertaining 3 hours drinking Portuguese beer in the company of Brazilians South Africans and Angolans.

Here are a few tips to help you through. The minute you ghet through the entrance doors into the arrivals hall go to the desk/counter on the right hand side. (You'll see plenty of other people there waving their arrival forms around. Give the guy at the counter your arrival form and your Yellow Fever certificate. He will stamp the back of the arrival form and then you can stand in the passport queue. If you don't get the stamp you will wait in the queue for an hour and then be turned back for the stamp. If you don't have a Yellow Fever card don't even bother standing in the queue. Go straight to the "Saude" clinic on the left hand side of the builing. They will try to charge you to give you an injection. You can usually get a counterfeit Yello Fever card from them without injections if you bribe the guy. Don't get caught bribing him. Better still make sure you have a Yellow Fever card. You'll stand in the passport queue for anywhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours. Don't lose your cool it won't help. Have a bottle of water in your carry-on luggage because it gets bloody hot in the airport and the AC seldom works. Once you're through passport control go through to the baggage area. If you're lucky the baggage will have already come off the conveyer belt and be stacked somewhere. Take your baggage and the little tag that's usually stuck on your ticket towards the exit. There is a checkpoint before the exit. Show the man your ticket and the little luggage tag. He will check it against the tag on your bags. You then have to choose the "nothing to declare" or "something to declare" exit. If you don't have anything to declare try to get to the far left of the security guy and keep against the wall all the way out. If you don't stick to the left there is a good chance that you will be stopped and your bags searched. If you really don't have anything to declare they'll rummage around in your bag for a while ask you a few questions be generally unpleasant and then let you go. If they find something that you should have declared then you're in trouble. The toilets in the airport are to be used only in emergencies and DON'T DRINK THE WATER (if there is any). When you leave from Luanda make sure you don't have any local currency on you. If you are searched it will be confiscated and you could miss your flight.