I went to a two-week trip to Angola, São Tome and Principe, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire and Bissau Guinea. The plan was to take the following flights:
Keflavík to Lisbon, Icelandair
Lisbon to Luanda, TAAG
Luanda to São Tomé, TAAG
São Tomé to Principe, STP Airways
Principe to São Tomé, STP Airways
São Tome to Libreville, ASKY
Libreville to Cotonou to Abidjan, Air Côte d’Ivoire
Abidjan to Lomé, ASKY
Lomé to Dakar to Bissau, ASKY
Bissau to Lisbon, TAP
This Air Côte d’Ivoire flight from Libreville to Abidjan had a stopover in Cotonou.
Libreville Airport is only a few minutes drive from the Radisson.
Airports rarely have good restaurants, but there's a Paul bakery and restaurant just outside of the terminal building. It has excellent pastries, sandwiches and hot meals, and is probably one of the best places in Libreville to have breakfast.
Check-in was here. I had to show proof of yellow fever vaccination and visa support for Ivory Coast.
The layout of the terminal is unusual: after checking in, you have to go back landside.
Passport control is upstairs. It was a bit slow but not as slow as security control right after: there was only one channel and there were quite a few people queuing.
I noticed that many passengers didn't have a passport but only a laissez-passer. Also, most well-dresses Gabonese passengers had to show an ordre de mission to travel.
My passport and boarding passes were checked before passport control, at passport control, at security, at boarding, in the staircase down to the paxbus and when boarding the bus.
I saw two lounges but I was in economy and boarding had already started anyway by the time I got through security. I just took a quick photo of the waiting area.
This A320, registration number TU-TSW, built in 2017 with this beautiful livery was our plane for today's flight.
There was a nice business class cabin.
But I was in economy which was in a standard 3+3 configuration. The cabin looked quite used. The flight was almost completely full in economy.
Push-back was at 09.21 for a scheduled departure time of 09.25.
A flight time of 1 hour and 25 minutes was announced until Cotonou.
Take-off was at 09.34.
Breakfast was served: a croissant, a yoghurt, water, tea or coffee, fruit juices - quite good for such a short flight.
Our location about 50 minutes after departure:
We landed in Cotonou at exactly 11.00.
About two-third of the passengers disembarked. I and all other passengers continuing to Abidjan remained on-board.
The plane was refueled and the crew checked if all cabin baggage belonged to someone on-board.
New passengers started to board at 11.28.
A flight time of 1 hour and 5 minutes was announced for the flight to Abidjan.
We started to taxi again at 11.57 and we took off at 12.05.
Despite being a short flight, a snack and a drink were served. There was a choice of ham or tuna sandwich.
I had a look Inside the sandwich and it wasn't very convincing. I decided to have lunch in Abidjan after arrival.
I had some water and orange juice.
The rest of the flight was uneventful.
Ambient lighting in the cabin before landing.
We landed in Abidjan at 12.11 and were at the gate at 12.15 for a scheduled arrival time of 12.10.
I had visa on arrival pre-arranged by a local travel agency. I got it in about 10 minutes.
My impressions of Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), population 32 million, is one of the economic powerhouses in West Africa. Abidjan impresses with its huge business district, high-rise office buildings (many of them from the 80s), multilane motorways, shiny malls and hypermarkets offering a bigger choice than almost anywhere else on the continent, all these serving primarily a strong middle-class of about two to seven million people, depending on definition and estimation. Despite an average economic yearly growth of around 7%, many people struggle with a monthly minimum wage of 114 €, and corruption and bureaucraty remain major issues. Abidjan is lucky to have a large forest, the Banco National Park to the North, and the Atlantic beachfront to the South, where the former capital of Grand Bassam has many charming but neglected buildings. The country has a lot to offer, yet international leisure tourism is minimal.
What are the people of Côte d'Ivoire like? Most Ivorians are remarkably friendly, easygoing and polite, and they value education.
Place de la République, Abidjan.
The headquarters of Air Côte d’Ivoire.
The Pyramide bulding, completed in 1973, used to be a major landmark of Abidjan.
An unexpected statue in the Plateau district of Abidjan.
The Tour F under construction, 421 meters and 74 floors, is a symbol of the new ambitions of Abidjan.
The Banco National Park is right outside of Abidjan.
My new favourite soft drink in a typical local restaurant in Abidjan.
A shop owner at the old-fashioned Grand Marché de Treichville.
Yamoussoukro, the capital in name but not in reality of te country, a three hour drive from Abidjan in a motorway, was built at the site of the birth village of the Ivory Coast's first president Félix Houphouët-Boigny. The landmark building is Basilica of Our Lady of Peace is the largest church in the world. It was built from 1985 to 1989 for an estimated cost of 400,000,000 Euros in today's value.
Grand Bassam
