Africa’s new £440mn airport with huge 3,500m runway in sprawling capit | World | News
Burkina Faso’s brand new airport is expected to open this year in the country’s capital city, Ouagadougou.
The mega project will see the next Ouagadougou-Donsin Airport, replace the city’s existing airport, Thomas Sanakara International Airport Ouagadougou.
The current airport, located in the urban built-up area of Ouagadougou, was built in the 1960s and is currently creating pollution and hazards in the surrounding area.
So, in 2010, a plan was made to construct and replace the old airport with a brand new one. The location chosen for the new airport is in the area of the village of Donsin, which is approximately 35 kilometres north of Ouagadougou.
However, the project faced multiple delays, and in September 2021, construction finally began – 11 years after the original plans.
As well as being the country’s capital city, Ouagadougou is the administrative, communications, cultural and economic centre of the nation, which is home to over two million people.
Since the building of the Thomas Sanakara International Airport, the city has developed massively, experiencing rapid urbanisation. The current site of the airport is in the centre of the city and is therefore surrounded by urban development, which the airport poses a risk to.
Additionally, the old airport has outgrown its capacity constraints as it handles around 98% of all scheduled commercial air traffic in Burkina Faso – making it necessary for a new airport to be developed.
According to the centreofavivation.com, the £440 million project has been funded by loans, including from the West African Development Bank and ECOWAS Banks for Investment and Development, and it is reported that the new airport will bring a return of around £350 million while also creating nearly 5000 direct and indirect jobs.
The first phase was planned to be completed in 2018 and was construction that would allow operations to be moved from Ouagadougou to Donsin. The plans include a single runway measuring 3,500 metres – 500 metres longer than the one at the current airport.
