| Francisco Mendes International Airport | |
| Iata: | |
| Icao: | |
| Type: | Public |
| Operator: | Aeroportos e Segurança Aérea (ASA) |
| Location: | Praia, Cape Verde |
| Opened: | 1961 |
| Closed: | October 2005 |
Francisco Mendes International Airport was an airport located on Santiago Island in Cape Verde. It was opened in 1961. It was located about 2 km east of central Praia in the southeastern part of the island of Santiago. After Cape Verdean independence, the airport was named after Francisco Mendes, a Guinea-Bissau independence activist and that country's first Prime Minister.
On 28 September 1998, a TACV de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter (registered D4-CAX) carrying Carlos Veiga, then Prime Minister of Cape Verde, 18 other passengers and three crew members crash-landed at the airport. There was one fatality (a bodyguard of the prime minister) and four people were injured.[1]
In late 2005, the airport was deactivated, and replaced by the new Praia International Airport (since 2012 Nelson Mandela International Airport).