DOUALA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO SHUT DOWN

Cameroon’s Douala International Airport is due to be temporarily closed down between March 1^st and March 21^st 2016, the second time in less than six months. The first closure from normal business, was between November 24 and 27 2015.

TO BE CLOSED DOWN FOR A WHILE

Flights during the period, March 1^st to March 21, bound for Douala would be diverted to 

the Yaounde-Nsimalen Airport which is expected to welcome at least 1500 passengers daily. 

Cameroon’s Transport Minister met with officials of airline companies and related service providers on Thursday, February 18 2016 in Yaoundé, and re-echoed contingency plans, before, during and after the temporal closure.

 HOW DLA-YDE ROAD OUGHT TO BE

Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o reassured the airline companies that government was willing and ready to transport passengers and the luggage with inter urban buses,

from Yaoundé to Douala and vice versa, in cases where the passenger’s initial destination was Douala. 

Airline companies had simply denied shouldering that responsibility.

ONLY HOPE FOR NOW?

To officials of the managing body of airports in the country, Aeroport du Cameroon, ADC, the closure of the Douala International Airport, the busiest in Cameroon, is to make way for the renovation of the tarmac on the runways and the parking lot.

ADC’s Communication Department in a recent statement said the renovation would be extended to the freight building and the technical block, in line with the exigencies of 

the Agency for Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar, ASECNA and the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO.

REHABILITATION  38 YEARS AFTER? 

Aeroport du Cameroon is expected to have Friday 19 February 2016, signed for a loan with the French Development Agency, AFD, 

worth some 30, 17 Billion Frs as part of the source of funding for the renovation project due to be completed by 2018.

The Douala International Airport was constructed between 1974 and 1977.