Departing Accra is straightforward if you leave for the airport early enough, and miserable if you do not. The queue is rarely the problem. The road is.
When to leave for the airport
Work backwards from the flight, then add the traffic:
| Flight | At the airport | Leave home |
|---|---|---|
| International, off-peak | 3 hours before | 3.5 to 4 hours before |
| International, evening peak | 3 hours before | 4.5 hours before |
| Domestic | 60 to 90 minutes | 2 hours before |
The evening bank — when the European and Gulf departures go within a few hours of each other — is the busiest the terminal gets.
At the terminal
Terminal 3 for anything international, Terminal 2 for domestic. Bags are screened on the way into the building as well as at security, so there are two queues before you reach your airline.
Have ready:
- Passport, and the visa for where you are going, which the airline will check.
- Yellow fever certificate. Some destinations ask for it on the way out.
- Your booking reference.
- Any residence permit or re-entry document, if you hold one. — Residence permits
What people try to take and cannot
This is the part that costs Ghanaians and visitors alike, every week, at the check-in desk.
- Fufu, banku, kenkey, shito, palm nut cream, groundnut paste. Anything wet, pulped or in a paste is treated as a liquid in hand luggage and often restricted in the hold as an agricultural product at the far end. Shito in hand luggage will be taken off you. Vacuum-pack it and put it in the hold, and check the rules for where you are going.
- Fresh produce, smoked fish and meat. Most of Europe and North America will not let it in, whatever the airline lets you check.
- Plants, seeds and soil.
- Anything with a lithium battery must be in the cabin, not the hold.
- Unprocessed gold, and anything that looks like it. There is a licensing regime and the penalties are serious.
Smoked fish is the classic
It is legal to carry out of Ghana and illegal to bring into a great many places, and the smell means it will be found. Check the rules of the country you are landing in, not the one you are leaving.
Baggage
West African regional flights and domestic flights have much smaller allowances than the long-haul carriers, and they enforce them. A bag that crossed the Atlantic without comment will be weighed on the way to Kumasi.
Buying the ticket
- Prices swing hard around the seasons. December is the most expensive time to fly out of Accra by a distance, because the diaspora is flying in and everything is full both ways. August is the other peak.
- Book December in about June, or accept the price.
- The Gulf and Ethiopian carriers usually undercut the direct European flights, at the cost of a connection and several hours.
- Nonstop is not always dearer. Check the direct European and US flights against the one-stop options rather than assuming.
- Pay attention to which London airport. Heathrow and Gatwick are both served and they are not interchangeable if you have an onward connection.
— Every nonstop destination, and who flies it
Getting a refund or changing a flight
Airline offices in Accra are more useful than call centres for anything complicated, and several of the carriers keep ticketing offices in town. Go in person with your booking reference.
If a flight is cancelled, your rights depend on the airline’s home jurisdiction and where you are flying to, not on Ghanaian law — a flight to the EU on a European carrier carries obligations that the same route on another airline may not.
Departure tax
It is included in the ticket price. Nobody should be asking you for cash to leave, at any desk, for any reason.
The last things
- Spend or change your cedis before you go airside. The rate at the airport is poor and cedis are hard to change abroad.
- Keep some small notes for the drive.
- Check the terminal, not just the airport.
- Eat before security.