Guide to Domestic Air Travel in Congo Brazzaville

Eilidh Crowley

Feb. 4, 2026

Are you ready to step back in time to handwritten tickets, and multiple pieces of paper for a boarding pass? Are you ready to fly airlines that you can barely find any information on online or airlines that have to be booked by you physically being at the desk? Welcome to the Republic of Congo also known as Congo Brazzaville.

What Airlines are there?

There are four airlines that run services domestically between the main cities of Brazzaville, Pointe Noire and some other smaller regional centres. The four airlines are Congo Equatorial Airlines, Canadian Airways Congo, Equaflight and Transair Congo.

Where can I get tickets?

This is one of the more frustrating aspects of domestic air travel in Congo and thankfully doesn’t apply to international flights. If you are outside of Congo, you may have to get a local person or travel agent to help get these for you. If you are already in Congo you will have to visit the airline office or go to the airport and purchase the tickets there.

If you are overseas at the time of book, when you arrive in Congo someone will have to come and bring the ticket to you. This ticket is not simply one boarding pass, instead you will get several pieces of blue paper that is usually handwritten. Do not lose these as they will be crucial at the airport.

What do I need to do at the airport?

When you get to the airport, and when it is time for you to go through to the check in counter you must first line up and get your name individually checked off, as well as get something marked on your handwritten blue ticket. You will then take this to the counter where they will give you a normal looking boarding pass for your flight. The blue ticket is actually pretty cool and will make a good souvenir.

Is it expensive?

No. A domestic flight between the two main cities of Brazzaville and Pointe Noire will set you back around 40,000 CFA or roughly $60 USD. It is honestly very reasonable.

Is it safe?

We found our experience on local airlines fine. The landing seemed very professional. As for the plane itself, it was older, but obviously if we are writing this blog now then we made it. We aren’t aviation engineers so we can’t get to the nitty gritty, but overall staff were professional and the flight was fine.

What are the airports like?

Actually fine. Once you’re past security there airports are pretty nice (we only went to Pointe Noire and Brazzaville airports). Brazzaville Maya Maya International is actually a very nice new building reflective of the petrodollars coming in.

If you like to drink alcohol and have lounge access (which you can even use priority pass for) then we highly recommend going to the lounge. They are a simple set up and will have a fridge with longnecks of beer (we recommend Ngok) and gin and tonic (yes long necks of gin and tonic – be careful they are lethal). They also have a bar where they will serve mix drinks and soft drinks. There will be some food but options will be limited to cold sandwiches and spaghetti. In the lounge in Brazzaville they did have sandwiches from the bakery Paul which they will heat up (this was a very lovely touch).

What do I need to watch out for?

When going to the check in counter things will often be mislabelled and only in French. We recommend checking with locals if you don’t speak French or Lingala as someone will eventually know what’s happened, you just have to be proactive.

When going through security or asking directions on where to check in people will try and get a little something from you. At this point it is a great idea to completely forget how to speak French, they aren’t very pushy and the people we encountered had a good sense of humour about it when we declined to give in. We were even asked at security in Brazzaville if we had the true Congolese experience with a lady! We laughed and walked away, but that was a first for us.

Where in Africa do we run tours?

We currently, don’t run tours in Congo (just yet at least), but for a full list of our Africa tours please check out our Africa and North Africa tours on our website.

How can I join a Saiga group tour in Africa?

To join us in Africa, send us an email to [email protected] . For more in-depth travel information about Africa or any of our destinations, check out our destination guides on our website.