Cotonou Cadjehoun International Airport

Cotonou Cadjehoun International Airport is the sole international airport of Benin, a West African country of 13 million people along the Gulf of Guinea. Serving 32 scheduled routes to 16 nonstop destinations operated by 14 airlines, COO's relatively modest destination count masks significant regional connectivity through a rotating roster of West African operators, underpinned by Benin's active participation in the ASKY Airlines and Air Côte d'Ivoire hub-and-spoke systems centered on Lomé and Abidjan respectively. The airport operates a single 7,874 ft (2,400 m) lighted asphalt runway 06/24 at 19 ft (6 m) elevation on the Atlantic coast immediately west of central Cotonou. COO is unusual among African capital-city airports for its urban proximity — the runway lies within 3 km (1.9 mi) of the central commercial district — and this urban embeddedness has generated longstanding pressure to relocate operations to a planned new airport at Glo-Djigbé, approximately 40 km (25 mi) north, which is under phased development. Internationally significant as the aviation gateway to a country with a key West African port (the Port of Cotonou) that serves as a principal maritime transit point for landlocked Niger, and as the air terminal for trade and tourism flows to Benin's UNESCO-listed Royal Palaces of Abomey and the stilt-village Ganvié. Carriers serving COO include Air France (Paris-CDG), Brussels Airlines (BRU), Turkish Airlines (IST), Royal Air Maroc (CMN), Ethiopian (ADD), Kenya Airways (NBO), ASKY, Air Côte d'Ivoire, Tunisair, Air Burkina, and Air Peace. The airport was reconstructed in 2006 with a modest terminal upgrade and further modernization has been bundled with the Glo-Djigbé transition programme.