Jean-Pierre Bemba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, chaired a working meeting in Kinshasa on 15 October 2026 on the modernisation of Kinshasa-Ndolo national airport. The project is intended to make Ndolo an international airport that serves as an alternate airport and also handles business aviation, domestic flights and light aviation.
The Agence congolaise des grands travaux (ACGT) presented two options for the layout of the runway, which could be up to 2,700m long. The City of Kinshasa will lead consultations to assess the technical, financial, social and environmental impact of each option, in line with the guidelines of the Schéma d’orientation stratégique de l’agglomération kinoise (SOSAK), the Kinshasa Strategic Urban Planning Scheme. The consultations are planned to last three weeks, after which the chosen option will be submitted to the competent authorities for validation.
The project also includes the construction of a presidential pavilion. The meeting was attended by Alexis Gisaro, Minister of State for Urban Planning and Housing; Ève Bazaiba, Minister of State for Social Affairs, Humanitarian Action and National Solidarity; Marie Nyange Ndambo, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development; and Jésus-Noël Sheke, the provincial minister of transport and urban mobility, who represented the Governor of Kinshasa.
Representatives of the Ndolo airport command, the Air Force, the Autorité de l’aviation civile (AAC), the Régie des voies aériennes (RVA), the ACGT, the Société nationale d’électricité (SNEL), the Office des voiries et drainage (OVD) and ONATRA also took part.
Separately, the American architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), working with Infrarose, presented their design for the reconstruction of N’Djili, Kinshasa’s main international airport, in July 2025, with operation of the new airport targeted for the first quarter of 2028.
