Abidjan becomes the first ECOWAS air hub to free itself from the taxes that weigh down tickets. Indeed, the West African sky remains one of the most expensive in the world to cross, weighed down by an accumulation of taxes which artificially inflate the price of plane tickets. Meeting on July 19 in Lungi, Sierra Leone, the ECOWAS Conference of Heads of State hailed Côte d'Ivoire as the only member state to have fully removed the taxes affected by the regional additional act on air transport. This Ivorian advance is part of a process that has been underway for a long time. Abidjan had already removed the Treasury tax and the national solidarity contribution on tickets in 2016, before halving the international tourist tax. 

More recently, the Council of Ministers on April 29, 2026 adopted three decrees reducing passenger and security fees on intra-ECOWAS flights by 25%, in application of the community act adopted in Abuja in December 2024. This regional text required all 12 active member states to remove non-taxes aeronautics and to lower passenger fees from January 1, 2026. However, to date, only Côte d'Ivoire has completed this reform completely, while the other capitals, from Lagos to Dakar, are still slow to fully transpose the decision into their national tax legislation.

In Lungi, the Heads of State have therefore called on lagging countries to accelerate their reforms, including legislative revisions and reductions in fees. The Ivorian performance now places Abidjan in the position of a regional showcase, while ECOWAS hopes to finally see intra-community air traffic take off.