Cadjehoun Airport

Cardinal Bernadin Gantin International Airport (formerly known as Cotonou Cadjehoun Airport) (IATA: COO, ICAO: DBBB) is an airport in the Cadjehoun neighborhood of Cotonou, the largest city in Benin, in West Africa. The airport is the largest in the country, and the primary entry point into the country by air, with flights to Africa and Europe.

Cardinal Bernadin Gantin International Airport Cotonou Cadjehoun Airport
IATA: COO ICAO: DBBB
Summary
Serves	Cotonou and Porto-Novo, Benin
Hub for	Rwandair[1]Benin Airlines[2]
Elevation AMSL	6 m / 19 ft
Coordinates	6°21′21″N 2°23′06″E
Website	aeroport-de-cotonou.bj
Map
COO Location of Airport in Benin
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 06/24 2,400 7,874 Asphalt
Sources: GCM[3] ACI's 2014 World Airport Traffic Report.

The airport was renamed after cardinal Bernardin Gantin in 2021.^[4]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines	Destinations
Air Burkina	Lomé, Ouagadougou
Air Côte d'Ivoire	Abidjan[5][6]
Air France	Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Air Peace	Lagos[7]
Air Senegal	Dakar–Diass
ASKY Airlines	Lomé, Niamey, Ouagadougou
Benin Airlines[8]	Parakou
Brussels Airlines	Brussels
Camair-Co	Douala, Libreville[9]
CEIBA Intercontinental	Malabo
Corsair International	Paris–Orly[10]
Cronos Airlines	Bata, Malabo
Ethiopian Airlines	Addis Ababa
Mauritania Airlines	Bamako, Brazzaville, Nouakchott
Royal Air Maroc	Casablanca[11]
RwandAir	Abidjan,[1] Bamako,[1] Brazzaville, Conakry,[1] Dakar–Diass,[1] Douala,[1] Kigali
Trans Air Congo	Brazzaville, Libreville, Pointe-Noire
Turkish Airlines	Abidjan, Istanbul

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Air France Cargo	Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Allied Air	Lagos, Libreville

Statistics

Annual passenger traffic at COO airport. See Wikidata query.

Traffic by calendar year. Official ACI Statistics

	Passengers	Change from previous year	Aircraft operations	Change from previous year	Cargo (metric tons)	Change from previous year
2007	401,073	20.79%	9,274	13.96%	5,772	36.94%
2008	394,444	1.65%	9,915	6.91%	10,091	74.83%
2009	391,318	0.79%	10,209	2.97%	8,081	19.92%
2010	406,491	3.88%	11,604	13.66%	6,047	25.17%
2011	432,500	6.40%	N.D.	N.D.	6,829	12.93%
2012	481,389	11.30%	N.D.	N.D.	6,959	1.90%
2013	470,068	2.35%	11,876	N.D.	6,506	6.51%
2014	503,633	7.14%	11,855	0.18%	7,995	22.89%
Source: Airports Council International. World Airport Traffic Reports (Years 2005,[12] 2006,[13] 2007,[14] 2009,[15] 2011,[16] 2012,[17] 2013,[18] and 2014[19])

Accidents and incidents

• UTA Flight 141: On 25 December 2003, the airplane crashed in the Bight of Benin, killing 141 of the 163 occupants, most of them Lebanese.

Replacement

In 1974, it was decided to move the operations of the Cotonou international airport to a new facility in Glo-Djigbé. Lack of funding quickly stopped the project.

The plans were revived in 2011, and President Yayi Boni presided at a ceremonial start to the construction of the new airport, using South African funding.^[20] Construction on the new facility appears to have stalled again.^[21]

Meanwhile, improvements to the Cotonou airport were initiated.^[22][23]