Bolgatanga Airport · Upper East Region · Project only · Checked October 2026
Bolgatanga Airport: promised for over forty years, still not built
Every Ghanaian government in living memory has promised the Upper East Region an airport. Land was set aside
near Bolgatanga around 1980. Presidents from both big parties have stood in front of chiefs and crowds and said it
would come soon. Local people have cleared the site with their own machines. In October 2026 there is still no
runway, no terminal and no flight. Here is the whole story, the latest plans, and how you really get to Bolga
today.
Bolgatanga Airport in brief
Key facts
Status: a project, not an airport. No runway, no terminal, no airline codes.
Planned site: Anateem, near Sumbrungu in the Bolgatanga Municipality, land earmarked since around 1980.
Responsible: Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) and the Ministry of Transport.
Stage in August 2026: public procurement, according to GACL.
Promised start: sod-cutting "by the end of 2026", then about 24 months of construction.
Nearest working airport:Tamale, about 160 km and two and a half to three hours away by road.
Old airstrip: Paga/Navrongo (ICAO DGLN), unpaved, no scheduled flights.
Can you fly to Bolgatanga today?
No. There is no airport at Bolgatanga and no scheduled flight anywhere in the Upper East Region.
Travellers fly from Accra to Tamale with Africa World
Airlines or Passion Air, many times a day, and continue by road. That is also how President Mahama put it in
August 2026: the point of a Bolgatanga airport would be to fly to Accra without first travelling to Tamale.
The Upper East did once have flights. An unpaved airstrip of about 1,500 metres near Paga and Navrongo, right on
the border with Burkina Faso, was used for commercial services. In the 1990s Burkina Faso complained that
aircraft using the strip were straying into its airspace, and the flights stopped. Today the strip is used, if
at all, only for occasional charter or official flights. It is not an alternative for ordinary travellers.
Land is earmarked for an airport at Anateem, near Sumbrungu.
1990s
Flights at the Paga airstrip stop after complaints from Burkina Faso about its airspace.
September 2014
President John Mahama (NDC) confirms the government plans an airport at Bolgatanga.
2016
Mahama later recalls that the sod was cut for the project in 2016, and that work stalled after his administration left office. Campaigning the same year, Nana Akufo-Addo (NPP) promises at the Sumbrungu chief's palace to complete the airport if elected.
July 2018
President Akufo-Addo announces that an airport for the region is "on the drawing board", now pointing to a site at Sherigu.
2020 and 2024
The Bolgatanga airport appears again in the NDC's election promises.
January 2024
Chiefs, tindaanas and people of the region hold a durbar called "From silence to action: Bolgatanga airport's 30-year journey", reminding Akufo-Addo of his 2016 promise.
March 2025
The citizens' group Alagumgube brings its own earthmoving equipment to clear and re-gravel parts of the site.
August 2025
The Ministry of Transport says it has started the processes for a new Bolgatanga airport.
November 2025
The 2026 budget proposes a new Airport Infrastructure Development Charge to fund regional airports, including Bolgatanga. ISSER questions the project's economics.
January 2026
GACL's chief executive, Yvonne Nana Afriyie Opare, leads a board delegation to the site.
May 2026
A GACL team begins a technical assessment of the site at Sumbrungu.
June 2026
Alagumgube dismisses reports of an imminent sod-cutting as premature.
13 August 2026
President Mahama inspects the site and says the sod will be cut by the end of 2026, with construction taking 24 months.
28 October 2026
At the time of writing we have found no confirmation that the sod has been cut or that construction has begun.
The 2026 plan
During his Resetting Ghana tour of the Upper East on 13 August 2026, President Mahama inspected the site,
thanked the traditional authorities for releasing the land, and called the airport a potential "game changer" for
the region. GACL said the project was at the public procurement stage, with approvals expected by October so
that the President could return to cut the sod. Construction is to take 24 months, and the contractor has said it
could finish sooner. If that holds, the airport would open around the end of 2028.
Our view
The Upper East has heard "very soon" from presidents of both parties for decades. Until there is a signed
contract, a published budget and machines working on a runway, Bolgatanga Airport is a promise, not a plan.
We will update this page the moment work actually starts.
Does Bolgatanga need an airport?
For: supporters, including Alagumgube and the think tank BONABOTO, say an airport would open the region to investors and tourists, save residents the long trip to Tamale, and attract travellers from Burkina Faso who now fly from Tamale.
Against: the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) has asked for a transparent cost–benefit analysis and asked why Tamale Airport, about 160 km away, cannot serve the region, especially if the Tamale–Bolgatanga road were upgraded.
The warning next door: Ho Airport cost about US$25 million and has had no scheduled flights since 2022. An airport alone does not create passengers.
Fly to Tamale, then drive: Africa World Airlines and Passion Air fly Accra–Tamale many times a day, in about an hour. From Tamale it is about 160 km to Bolgatanga, two and a half to three hours by car or bus.
Bus from Tamale: buses and shared minibuses run between Tamale and Bolgatanga throughout the day.
Bus from Accra or Kumasi: overnight buses run all the way to Bolgatanga. Expect twelve to fifteen hours from Accra.
From Burkina Faso: the border at Paga is about 40 km north of Bolgatanga, on the main road to Ouagadougou.
The weather in Bolgatanga at this moment, the time in Ghana, and a converter between cedis and the main currencies.
The weather matters here
The Upper East is Ghana's hottest and driest region. The single rainy season runs roughly from May to
October. From November to February the Harmattan brings cool, dusty mornings and hazy skies, and March and
April are fiercely hot, often above 40 °C.
The Upper East: what you came for
Even without an airport, the Upper East rewards the journey: the basket weavers and leatherworkers of Bolga, the
sacred crocodiles of Paga, the slave camp at Pikworo, the painted compounds of Sirigu, the rock shrines of the
Tongo Hills and the mud-built cathedral of Navrongo.
Tours across Northern Ghana: Tamale, Mole, the Upper East and the Upper West. Entrance fees are included in the
tour price; tips are not included but always welcome.
GhanaFlights.info belongs to an independent network of more than 70 travel, heritage and information websites,
which began with ghana-net.com in December 2000. No Google advertising, no sponsored praise, no picture-postcard
copy: just the routes and the places, as they are.
Updated and fact-checked: 28 October 2026. History from Ghana Airports Company, the Ghana News
Agency, ISSER and Ghanaian press reports from 2014 to 2026. We will update this page as soon as construction
actually begins. Text and research by Remo Kurka for GhanaFlights.info. This website carries no Google advertising.