Category | Mixed-use, Urban Regeneration | Airport, Port and Industrial Planning |
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Year | 2019 |
Size | 4280ha |
Projects
Gabon Airport City
Bringing African Uniqueness & Experience to The Airport City
The Government of Gabon is developing New Libreville International Airport (NLIA) at NKOK, 30km from Libreville city centre and next to the Gabon Special Economic Zone (GSEZ). A total area of around 4,278ha has been identified for the airport and the airport city development.
The airport city is a national strategic project to accelerate Gabon economic diversification by pushing the non-oil & gas sectors, in this case, the aviation, logistics and related sectors.
While many airport cities have been planned as an after-thought around the existing or new airport, the planning process of the Gabon airport city has been done together with the airport master plan review, so as to integrate and to achieve the complementary locational benefit of both the airport and the airport city components.
Aware of its strategic role in the economic diversification, SWOT analysis and an economic positioning study were conducted to ensure its feasibility, which lead to the creation of a self-sustained town and a new regional centre for the “New District” in the south, with industries, logistics, aviation, conventions, defence and tourism as the economic drivers.


The new airport city (New District) integrates the surrounding development, including the existing Special Economic Zone. It also proposes infrastructure improvement in the surrounding area, provides comprehensive pubic facilities to serve the wider community and structures the District to avoid unplanned urban growth.
Developed on the forested, green and undulating terrain, extensive site studies were conducted to minimise earthwork, retain the forest and natural waterways as much as possible and create biodiversity corridors across the development and integrating it with the reserve site for the 2nd runway, which will be used as a game (nature) park.
Envisioned to be a Gateway City in the Park, the airport city preserves Gabon’s natural landscape in the dense rainforest along the wide waterways reserve corridors, while bringing an African experience in the game park, which will be made available to visitors at the arrival.
As the construction of the airport has already begun, design optimisation and safety compliance analysis were conducted, especially for the Phase 1 development and for the airport components through regular discussions with the stakeholders, which are the airport operators, the developer, the air force and the authorities.
The Phase 1 development of the airport city has gone through rigorous reviews by the stakeholders in a preparation for the inclusion into the airport EPC contract.
Specialist Services
Integrated services provided for this project.