Ivory Coast has three international airports located in Abidjan, Yamoussoukro, and Bouaké. Fourteen smaller cities also possess regional airports, the most important of which are Daloa, Korhogo, Man, Odiénné et San-pédro.
Since the outbreak of the crisis, only five of these airports are available. These are Abidjan, San-Pédro, Yamoussoukro, Daloa, and Touba. Regarding the International Airport of Abidjan, official statistics from 2005, showed 14,257 commercial movements (departures and arrivals); 745,180 commercial passengers (arrivals, departures, and transit) and 12,552 tons of commercial freight. The Airport of Abidjan covers 90% of the air traffic of Côte d’Ivoire and generate 95% of the overall profits of the sector.
The airport of Abidjan is operated by a private company, Aeria, created in association with the Commerce Chamber of Marseilles. Its traffic mainly encompasses European aeronautical companies (Air France, Brussels Airlines) and some African firms (South African Airways, Kenya Airways, Air Sénégal International).
Flag of Ivory Coast:
The flag of Ivory Coast (French: drapeau de la Côte d’Ivoire, lit. flag of the Coast of Ivory) features three equal vertical bands of orange (hoist side), white, and green.
In 1959, when the Ivorian Legislative Assembly was adopting the flag, Minister of State Jean Delafosse said:
The National Emblem must be the living symbol of the fatherland:
orange: recalling the color of our rich and generous earth; it is the meaning of our struggle, the blood of a young people in its struggle for our emancipation;
white: peace, but the peace of right;
green: hope, of course, for others; but for us, the certainty of a better future
In 1960, when the Legislative Assembly was drafting the constitution, Mamadou Coulibaly said:
the Orange stripe expresses the splendor of national blossoming, while also serving as a reminder of the Northern Savannas. The White stripe glorifies peace in purity and union of hearts, and is the pledge of our success; and the Green stripe, expression of our hope for the future, recalls the luxuriant virgin forest of Ivory Coast, the first great source of national prosperity. The vertical alignment of the stripes symbolizes the dynamic youth which heads for the future under the national motto “Union, Discipline and Work”.