Thomas Sankara International Airport Ouagadougou

Aerial photograph of Ouagadougou with airport runway visible at centre

Ouagadougou Airport Template:Airport codes, officially Thomas Sankara International Airport Ouagadougou, is an international airport in the center of the capital city of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. It was built in the 1960s, and it is approximately Template:Convert southeast of the main commercial area. The site itself is approximately Template:Convert in length, Template:Convert in width at its narrowest point, and covers an area of approximately Template:Convert. Its runway is Template:Convert long. When the airport was built it was on the southern boundary of the city. Ouagadougou has since experienced rapid urbanization and the airport is now surrounded by urban development.<ref name= Donsin>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Besides having outgrown its capacity constraints, Ouagadougou Airport is a source of pollution and risk. The government has plans for a new airport 30 km north of the capital.<ref name= Donsin /><ref name=Egis>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In addition to civilian traffic, the airport has a military sector.<ref name=washingtonpost>Template:Cite news</ref>

Ouagadougou Airport handles about 98% of all scheduled commercial air traffic in Burkina Faso. Air Burkina and Air France handle about 60% of scheduled passenger traffic. Between 2005 and 2011, air passenger traffic at Ouagadougou airport grew at an average annual rate of 7.0%, reaching about 404,726 passengers in 2011 and was estimated to reach 850,000 by 2025.

In 2007 it was the 15th busiest airport in West Africa in passenger volume, just ahead of Port Harcourt (Nigeria) and behind Banjul (Gambia).

The total air cargo grew 71% from 4,350 tons in 2005 to about 7,448 tons in 2009.<ref name=Worldbank>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Military use

According to a 2012 article in the Washington Post, the United States military was using the military side of the airport as the hub of its airborne intelligence operations for much of Western Africa. Its surveillance operations were carried out mainly with small, unarmed turboprop aircraft disguised as private planes, but full of surveillance equipment. The U.S. spy planes fly hundreds of kilometres north to Mali, Mauritania and the Sahara, where they search for Al-Qaida fighters from the Maghreb. The planes refuel on isolated airstrips favored by African bush pilots, extending their effective flight range by thousands of kilometres. According to the Washington Post, in 2012 Ouagadougou was the most important of the approximately dozen air bases that the U.S. established in Africa since 2007.<ref name=washingtonpost />

Plans for a new airport

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The government plans to close the current airport upon construction of the Ouagadougou-Donsin Airport, approximately Template:Convert northeast of Ouagadougou near the village of Donsin. It was originally expected to be completed around 2018, and the government of Burkina Faso has an $85 million loan from the World Bank to help finance the construction.<ref name=Egis /><ref name=Worldbank /> The government of Burkina Faso believed that the project would cost $618 million.<ref name= Donsin /> Construction started in 2021<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> for completion in 2025.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Accidents and incidents

• On September 17, 2013, a standing ATR 72-202 (EC-LNP) of Colombe Air Line leased from Helitt Lineas Aereas was substantially damaged when a heavy thunderstorm passed over the airport, with winds up to 44 knots (50.6 mph) being registered at 20:00. The plane was written off.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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