Ouagadougou Thomas Sankara International Airport — Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Renamed to honor Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary president assassinated in 1987 whose legacy still looms large over Burkina Faso's politics, OUA sits within the built-up area of Ouagadougou itself, a location that has long complicated plans for expansion. A replacement facility at Donsin, outside the capital, has been proposed and delayed for well over a decade amid funding shortfalls and shifting government priorities, leaving the current airport to keep absorbing growth it was never designed for. Air Burkina operates from OUA alongside a handful of regional and international carriers connecting landlocked Burkina Faso to Abidjan, Accra, Paris, and other West African and European cities. Ouagadougou functions as the political and commercial center of a country that has endured significant instability in recent years, and the airport remains the primary point of entry for diplomats, aid workers, and traders moving through the wider Sahel region.