• Guinea delays inauguration of new Conakry airport facilities, part of Phase 1 expansion
  
  
• Phase 2 launch to proceed; project aims to ease congestion after 788,879 passengers in 2024
  
  
• Expansion supports Simandou 2040 strategy, with broader aviation, rail, and road integration plans
  

The Guinean government is preparing to inaugurate new facilities built under Phase 1 of the expansion of Ahmed Sékou Touré International Airport in Conakry. The ceremony, initially scheduled for Saturday, November 8, 2025, has been postponed to a later date to finalize “organizational details required for the event’s smooth execution.”

The occasion will also mark the official launch of Phase 2 of the project. Work on the airport expansion began in 2023 and is primarily aimed at relieving congestion at the facility, which has seen strong growth in passenger traffic. The airport handled 788,879 passengers in 2024, well above its estimated capacity of 500,000 a year.

The expansion is a flagship component of the government’s Simandou 2040 Program and is being carried out by the Turkish group Albayrak. The master plan includes a 32,000-square-meter passenger terminal, a 3,600-square-meter cargo terminal, administrative buildings, a new control tower, a fire station, a power plant, a presidential pavilion, a hotel complex, and an internal road network.

Beyond the core infrastructure project, the authorities are pursuing a wider transformation of Guinea’s aviation sector. The national strategy involves rehabilitating secondary airfields to stimulate domestic traffic, reviving the state-owned airline, and integrating aviation into a broader multimodal transport network supported by ongoing railway modernization, particularly through the Simandou mining and rail project, as well as multiple road initiatives.

The Conakry airport expansion is widely presented as a cornerstone for boosting Guinea’s economic appeal, improving trade flows, and promoting tourism.

Henoc Dossa