Woke up relatively early, because although things had gone smoothly until this point, I was still convinced that airports and flights in Africa could be seriously unpredictable, so wanted to get there in plenty of time. Check out at the hotel yielded a lower than expected bill – when I put my company’s name on the bill, they reduced it to the corporate rate which I hadn’t expected. Saved me over 15,000 CFA – $30+ and still a free shuttle to the airport. Can’t really beat that!
I was excited for this part of the trip. Ever since I had heard about it when I was young, I thought Ouagadougou had to be the coolest city name ever. I just hoped it would live up to the hype!
Got to the airport about 1.5 hours before the flight, and check-in wasn’t even open. There were some chairs in a covered area of the airport, and just a few minutes later they opened the check-in hall. We were the only flight leaving, and it appeared only about half full, so there would only be about 25 people checking in for the flight. Check-in was super easy, no problems, and 5 minutes later I was clearing immigration and security which were both also a complete non-event.
The waiting room for the flight was completely empty, but there was also a “VIP” room. It was nothing more than a couple of overstuffed chairs and sofas – nothing special, and I’d call it a nice quiet place to wait, but the regular hall was pretty quiet itself. I suppose it was probably a bit different when the Air France flight left, but today it was nice and quiet. A shot of the waiting hall:
An ancient Government of Niger 737 right outside on the tarmac:
