Overview
Key airport information may also be found at: http://worldaerodata.com/
The civil aviation sector in the Republic of the Congo is regulated by the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation while the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) is the Government agency that manages and administers the network of 23 notable airports, including two international airports in Brazzaville (Maya-Maya) and Pointe Noire (Agostino Neto), and one approved airport for international flights (Oyo-Ollombo airport).
Most of the other national airports are airstrips or airfield that very rarely used. Some of them are in very good condition (comparable to international airports), some are in decent condition, and others cannot be used as they were not properly maintained, or not maintained at all. These airports are mainly used for government purposes. More details about each airport are available in other sections of this document.
A new airport terminal and a new runway have been recently built at the airport of Brazzaville and a new terminal was inaugurated in 2016 in the Pointe-Noire airport to increase the passengers capacity.
Major constraints in the aviation sector of the RoC are related to the length of time it takes to obtain overflight and landing clearances for United Nations and diplomatic planes, since the request must pass through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Directorate-General for Strategic Affairs and Military Cooperation (DGASCOM).
For the airspace security and navigation of aircraft, ASECNA is responsible for the following duties:
- Control of the airspace circulation
- Guidance of airplanes
- Transmission of technical and traffic messages
- Information about flight arrivals/departures
- Meteorological information
- Guidance of flights inside the airport and terminal approaches
- Handling of fire emergency services in the airports
International flights into, from or over territories of the member states of ASECNA (Bénin, Burkina Cameroun, Centrafrique, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, France, Gabon, Guinée-Bissau, Guinée Equatoriale, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritanie, Niger, Sénégal, Tchad, Togo, Union des Comoros) are liable to the current laws and regulations relating to civil aviation in force in the states, that are specified below and can be found at the following link: http://www.ais-asecna.org/en/gen/gen1.htm.
For more information on government agency and airport company contact information, please see the following links: 4.1 Government Contact List and 4.5 Airport Companies Contact List.
Procedures for Foreign Registered Aircraft
Procedures for Scheduled Flights
For regular international scheduled flights operated by foreign air transportation company, the following requirements must be satisfied:
- The state of the airline must be a party to the International Air Services Transit Agreement and/or the International Air Transportation;
- The airline must be eligible to make the flights under the provisions of a bilateral or multilateral agreement between the contracting parties (states affected). This one must have an operating license allowing to perform the flights. The license request must be addressed to the authorities concerned
Documents required for aircraft clearance
It is necessary that the undermentioned documents must to be presented by an operator airline to have the clearance on entry or departure of its aircraft.
These documents must follow the ICAO standards and are acceptable when provided in French or in English and completed in legible handwriting.
Aircraft documents required (arrival and departure) for IMMIGRATION, CUSTOMS AND HEALTH are:
- General declaration
- Passengers manifest
- Cargo manifest
- One copy of the General Declaration returned and endorsed by Customs can signify clearance.
- If no passenger is embarking or disembarking and no merchandises embarked or disembarked, there is no needs to present to the above authorities, other documents except one or some copies of the general declaration.
Procedures for Non-Scheduled Flights
If an operator intends to carry out one or series of non-scheduled flights in transit across into the territory of an ASECNA member state, or making non-traffic stops, it is necessary for the operator to obtain a prior permission for this purpose.
If an operator intends to perform one or series of non-scheduled flights into the territory of an ASECNA member state, for taking on or discharging passengers, cargo or mail, it is necessary for the operator to apply to the authority concerned for permission to carry out such operations within the required time.
The permission request must include the following information:
- Name of operator
- Type of aircraft and registration marks
- Date and time of arrival and departure
- Place of embarkation or disembarkation abroad, as the case may be, of passengers and/or freight;
- Purpose of flight and number of passengers and/or nature and amount of freight;
- Name, address and business of charterer;
- Other different information.
Documents required for aircraft clearance
Same requirements as for the scheduled flights (see above).
Procedures for Private Flights
For reasons of flight safety, a previous authorization concerning an overflight and stopover is required in addition to the filing of a flight plan for the 10 following states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
An authorization request must be submitted to the Authority concerned at least 2 on 7 days before the flight. A prior notice must be addressed at least 2 on 3 days before the expected date of the flight for the other states as follows: Central African Republic, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, and Tchad.
Documents required for aircraft clearance
No documents, in addition to those mentioned under 2.2 above, are required in the case of a private flight.
For a stay beyond some days after the date of arrival, a custom carnet will be accepted instead of a bond or of any financial guarantee.
Procedures for Foreign Registered Aircraft
In RoC, the following requirements need to be applied, presented and approved before prepositioning of a foreign registered aircraft:
A request letter should be addressed to ANAC for the operation of a foreign registered aircraft. The letter should be accompanied by the following documents:
- Registration certificate
- Aircraft insurance
- Air worthiness document
- Pilots aviation license
- Pilots medical license
- Information on the operations details, airports, period etc.
- AIRCRAFT ENTRY AND DEPARTURE : Obligation to perform the first landing or the final take-off from a customs aerodrome BRAZZAVILLE/Maya Maya POINTE-NOIRE - Cargo Manifest – LTA
- AIRCRAFT TRANSIT : - Obligation to perform the first landing or the final take-off from a customs aerodrome
- IMMIGRATION: AIRCRAFT ENTRY, TRANSIT AND DEPARTURE : - Passenger Manifest.
- HEALTH: AIRCRAFT ENTRY AND DEPARTURE : - Passenger Manifest
- AIRCRAFT TRANSIT - No formality
- AIRWORTHINESS: Antonov 12 and Antonov 26 operations are prohibited within Republic of CONGO territory
The Congo territory overflight and the technical stopovers on the national ground for aircraft others than those in possession of commercial rights, the French State aircraft and the African Republics State aircraft having the benefit of permanent authorizations, in application of Cooperation and Defense agreements, are subject to a previous permission delivered by the Ministry in charge of Aviation. - Postal service - Telegraphic Address: AVIACIVIL BRAZZAVILLE - Voie RSFTA : FCBVYAYX
The requests must be addressed 5 days before the expected overflight and landing date and must include the following information:
- Type of aircraft
- Registration Marks
- Nationality
- Owner or aircraft operator
- Address of Owner or aircraft operator
- Name, surname of the pilot and nationality
- Crew member
- Number of passengers
- Flight purpose
- Dates and flight routes
- When it concerns a private aircraft, the pilot will provide his place and date of birth.
Public Health Measures Applied to Aircraft
Now, specific measures related to COVID are to be applied according to government regulations in the country of arrival. Since the epidemy is losing intensity across the country, restrictive measure such as curfew are being lifted, so we may expect other measure to be lifted too. We cannot say if the health measures related to COVID in the aircraft will stay in place or not.
Besides COVID matters that are a priority when in place, The regular respect public health measures of aircraft in most of ASECNA States must be respected. The aircraft may land under the condition that has been disinfected approximately 30 minutes before its arrival on the aerodrome. The application of this measure must be properly recorded in the Health Section of the General Declaration.
However, when the insects spraying conditions stipulated in Annex 9 are not applied in theory or when the aircraft is coming from a cholera infection zone with recent cases declared, the sanitary control service can proceed to a new spraying of the aircraft on the ground before the disembarkation of passengers and crew.
If, in special circumstances, the public health authorities find it necessary a second spraying of the aircraft on the ground, passengers and crew are permitted to disembark beforehand.
For more information on government agency and airport company contact information, please see the following links: 4.1 Government Contact List.
