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.