I have been going in and out of CAR for the past one and half year almost every three months as my husband used to work there. The airport is a complete mess. There are two things which I found extremely annoying. One that they will randomly put some bags in customs, where anything can be stolen from it until you reach there, and they will open it in a complete mess. Another thing is that a porter will take your bags outside and in the end you will find 6 people asking you for money. Now a mobile company has given uniforms with numbers to the porters which can solve your problem if you note down the number.

I used to travel extensively in sub-Saharan Africa. Arriving is not such a problem; the only hassle is the fight for your luggage from the one belt in a far too small luggage collection area. Departure is another story. It used to be a real fight (in the often very humid and hot environment) to get yourself and your luggage registered: people with their luggage pushing and struggling to get in through a very small entrance. Luckily Air France has a pre check-in/luggage registration early in the morning, which is very much recommended. Having past the check-in, the different departments start to try to get money from you. During the last 20 years the situation has got considerably worse, which is the result of the very unstable en financially almost bankrupt government.

Entering the CAR through this airport is a hassle. Filling out the customs sheets in the airplane before landing is useless because they have you fill out new ones in the airport itself and throw out the ones filled out in the plane. At passport check, they either send you on to where the luggage belt is, or they randomly select you to see another security agent that asks for money that allows you to go to the luggage belt. Once you are waiting at the luggage belt, you can see whether your luggage is going to make it or not. They choose randomly through the whole lot of luggage and put them aside, where you have to pay money to get it back. If you are strong enough, you can get your stuff back without paying money. It's hard to keep your luggage close to you because porters come up and just grab your bag and take it outside, where they then ask for money for the unwanted service. There is a counter with a duty free shelf with 3 or 4 articles to buy. The waiting room for outbound flights has air conditioning and a bar, but the roof leaks with water, whether it is raining or not. One cannot expect much of this airport, apart from hassles, countless passport checks and bag searches.