Cotonou Airport
Lasting Impressions....
"going through that airport is hell on earth sometimes." (Peter K)
"they mark all over your luggage with white chalk....they are just trying to look official I think!" (Peter K)
"you must check in, and leave your baggage, *ten hours* before your flight." (Bruce A. Johnson)
Quick Reference Airport Guide
Here is some information that we've picked out of from your reviews. Be sure to read the review pages for the most up-to-date info:
- relaxed security
- air-conditioning is high
- plastic bucket seats
by Bruce A. Johnson
"While I didn't actually sleep here, this airport left me with indelible memories. I flew in from CDG on the now - gone Air Afrique, which was quite an experience in itself. How the pilot landed an Airbus A330 (or the Air France Airbus A340 I left in) on that tiny runway is a mystery to me, but I salute those brave souls. The plane disgorged us onto the tarmac and into an airport that looked exactly like my memories of Utica, NY's Oneida County Airport from the early 1960's - all that separated the squat, tan-brick terminal building from the taxiway was a 3-foot-high chain-link fence. All the passengers crowded into the arrival/customs area, where we had to fill out entry forms. Problem was, no one told us where they could be found, and with my extremely limited command of French, I had a real hard time explaining that I needed one! Finally, I got through, only to find that Air Afrique had left a large piece of my luggage - with much of my technical gear essential to my job - at CDG. If I thought the building was primitive, I was astounded to see the "computer"the baggage guy had ...a ten-year-old PC that had to be a 386 at best, running some odd variant of DOS. He had a line of ten people with baggage problems, and took fifteen minutes with each one...and I was near the back of the line. Finally, we left the terminal, hoping my bag would show up eventually (and it did, two days later, obviously opened and resealed with a tenuous "Air France" strap.) There were ticket counters in the main section of the terminal, again echoing the 1960's small-American-airport theme ...dirty, rough signage, very crude. Fast forward: Ten days later, I leave. But...you must check in, and leave your baggage, *ten hours* before your flight. What? And mysteriously, the baggage I brought in, and was taking home much emptier than when I arrived, was now "overweight." What? 1500 French francs, that's what. (About 300US.) So I check in, drop my bags, and go back to spend a day without any of my stuff. I go back that night, get past the customs folks, check in at the same counter I checked in ten hours before, and go to the departure lounge - two glassed-in rooms with two doors to the tarmac. Sleeping? Doubtful; plastic bucket seats were all there was to sit on, and it was hellishly bright for a country that makes "underlit" an understatement. I go to drop my carry-on onto the belt of the X-ray, and the "security" guy tells me, "Don't bother - it's broken." Hmmmmm. The Air France A340 was already there, and oddly, was parked with the passenger loading doors away from the terminal (plane facing right.) When it came time to board, that arrangement became clear; as I walked around the nose of the huge airplane, at the base of the airstairs was a table and six armed Air France employees frisking and searching *every passenger.* Now THAT'S security! Not a sleeping story, but I noticed that Cotonou had not been mentioned yet, and it certainly deserves to be!"
