Conakry International Airport

Conakry International Airport (IATA: CKY, ICAO: GUCY), also known as Gbessia International Airport, is an airport serving Conakry, capital of the Republic of Guinea in West Africa. It parallels the south shore of the Kaloum Peninsula approximately five kilometers from its tip. Autoroute Fidel Castro connects the airport to Conakry proper.

Conakry International Airport

Aéroport international de Conakry
Summary
Airport typePublic
OperatorSOGEAC
ServesConakry, Guinea
Opened1945 (1945)
Hub forGuinea Airlines
Elevation AMSL72 ft / 22 m
Coordinates09°34′36.80″N 13°36′43.06″W
Websiteaeroportdeconakry.com
Map
CKY
Location of Airport in Guinea
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
06/24 3,300 10,827 Asphalt
Statistics (2012)
Passengers360,007
Stats[1][2] GCM[3] SkyVector[4]

The airport is divided into domestic and international terminals. A number of West African, North African and European airlines serve Conakry.

The Conakry VOR/DME (Ident: GIA) and Conakry non-directional beacon (Ident: CY) are located on the field.[5][6]

History

The airport was built in 1945.[2]

In the 1970s, Soviet Naval Aviation was granted facilities at the airport to serve as a staging base for Atlantic maritime reconnaissance patrols by Tu-95RTs aircraft.

It was reported in 1975 that most of the Guinean air force's aircraft were based at Conakry-Gbessia Airport.[7] Current air force operations are conducted out of the Conakry-Gbessia Airport.

All non-ECOWAS foreigners are required to have a valid Guinean visa and a vaccination card in order to be granted entry. Yellow fever vaccination cards are verified upon entry into the country at Gbessia.

As of 2010, the airport possesses no radar and guides all planes in by sight. Night flights by European airlines require pilots to do a fly over of the runway following a near miss of a landing Air France A330 from Paris and a departing Air Senegal International Boeing 737-700 to Dakar.

In 2009, with a goal to increase annual passenger capacity to 1 million passengers, renovations began on the main terminal. Renovation costs amounted to 60 billion GNF (Around 85 million EUR).[8] The government debated in 2007 whether to relocate the Conakry Airport to Forecariah, although no official changes have been declared, as of 2011.[9] Traditionally, passengers embarked on all flights directly on the tarmac with transfers to the airport either by foot (most inter West African flights) or by buses for all European flights. The new renovations included gateways and an improved passenger departure lounge. As of January 2011, no changes have been made to the arrivals (customs and luggage carousels). The airport, as of 2012, has 360,000+ passengers per year.[1]

Airlines and destinations
AirlinesDestinations
Air Côte d'Ivoire Abidjan, Dakar–Diass[10]
Air France Nouakchott, Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Air Senegal Dakar–Diass[11]
ASKY Airlines Bamako, Banjul,[12] Bissau, Dakar–Diass, Freetown,[12] Lagos,[13] Lomé,[14] Monrovia,[12] Nouakchott,[13] Ouagadougou,[13] Praia
Emirates1 Dubai–International
Ethiopian Airlines Addis Ababa[15]
Guinea Airlines Accra, Bamako, Banjul,[13] Dakar–Diass,[13] Freetown,[13] Lagos, Monrovia,[13] Ouagadougou
Mauritania Airlines Abidjan,[16] Dakar–Diass, Nouakchott
Royal Air Maroc Casablanca
TAP Air Portugal Lisbon[17]
Tunisair Dakar–Diass, Tunis[18]
Turkish Airlines Istanbul,[19] Ouagadougou[20]
Notes

^1 : Emirates' flight to Dubai–International from Conakry makes an initial stop in Dakar, but the flight Dubai–International to Conakry is nonstop. Emirates does not have local traffic rights on the Dakar to Conakry sector.

Student use for exam preparation
  • The airport parking lot is also a popular destination for students preparing for exams, as it is one of the few places in the country which is freely accessible to the public and always illuminated by electric lamps.[21]

Incidents
  • On 1 July 1983, a CAAK (predecessor to Air Koryo) Ilyushin Il-62M on a non-scheduled international passenger flight from Pyongyang, North Korea (Sunan International Airport) to Conakry, Guinea (Conakry International Airport) crashed at the Fouta Djall Mountains in Guinea. All 23 persons on board were killed, and the aircraft was written off.
  • On 19 November 2000, a now-defunct Ghana Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-9 landed without landing gear in Conakry. The plane was written off.[22]
  • On 28 June 2003, a missing Boeing 727-223 N844AA was believed to have been found repainted at the Conakry Airport by Canadian AirServ pilot, Bob Strother. This was dismissed as incorrect.[23]
  • In 2003 or 2004, an Air Serv International Beechcraft 200 Super King Air landed without front landing gear. Damage was subsequently fixed.
  • In 2007, a Guinean Air Force MiG-21 departing from GUCY crashed into the Radio Television Guineenne headquarters. The Russian pilot ejected and was unharmed.[24]

See also

References
  1. "About Conakry International Airport". Routes Online. UBM plc. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  2. "Presentation:Conakry International Airport". SOGEAC. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  3. Airport information for Conakry Airport at Great Circle Mapper.
  4. "Conakry Airport". SkyVector. SkyVector Aeronautical Charts. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  5. "Conakry VOR-DME (GIA) @ OurAirports". ourairports.com. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  6. "Conakry NDB (CY) @ OurAirports". ourairports.com. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  7. Harold D. Nelson, Area Handbook for Guinea, Department of the Army Pamphlet 550-174, 1975, p.333
  8. Info-Guinée : mountmane Archived 26 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Mountmane.hautetfort.com. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  9. Conakry : Haro sur les bouchons ! | Jeuneafrique.com – le premier site d'information et d'actualité sur l'Afrique. Jeuneafrique.com (5 April 2012). Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  10. "Air Côte d'Ivoire adds new sectors from April 2017". Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  11. "Destinations". flyairsenegal.com.}
  12. "Asky Airlines adds expands Conakry network from mid-Oct 2018". routesonline.com. 26 September 2018.
  13. Ltd. 2019, UBM (UK). "Asky Airlines files Guinea network from December 2018". Routesonline. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  14. "ASKY AIRLINES". www.flyasky.com. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  15. "Ethiopian resumes Conakry service from Feb 2017". routesonline. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  16. Liu, Jim. "Mauritiania Airlines adds Conakry – Abidjan sector from Nov 2019". Routesonline. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  17. "Conakri é o novo destino da TAP em África a partir de Julho". PressTur. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  18. Liu, Jim (3 March 2017). "Tunisair adds Conakry / Dakar service from late-March 2017". Routes Online. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  19. "Istanbul's New Airport Is A Hot Beautiful Mess". One Mile at a Time. 9 April 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  20. "Turkish Airlines launches a new route to Conakry". Aviate World. 28 September 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  21. Callimachi, Rukmini (20 July 2007). "Students scrounge for light at Guinea airport". Seattle Times Newspaper. Retrieved 20 July 2007.
  22. ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51 9G-ADY Conakry Airport (CKY). Aviation-safety.net (13 November 2000). Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  23. Astill, James (7 July 2003). "Plane in terrorism scare turns up sporting a respray". The Guardian. London.
  24. Crash d'un Mig 21 sur la RTG à Conakry. Panapress.com. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
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