The airport Amílcar Cabral International is the most important and largest airport of Cape Verde on the island of Sal. It has been named since independence in 1975 after the Cape Verdean independence fighter and politician Amílcar Cabral.
In 1949, the airport was completed as a civil airport. During the apartheid policy, the Organization of African Unity imposed an overflight embargo on South African commercial aircraft, allowing only intermediate landings on Sal in Europe and North America traffic.
In addition, during the operation of the Space Shuttle, the airport was a potential emergency landing site in the event of an unscheduled landing.