The airport presents visitors with a cherished consumer experience, such as convenience and hospitality. Beginning from the airport, ranked as third in Africa and 28th globally by Skytrax, a United Kingdom-based firm specialising in airline and airport research, everything appeared in order.

Turkish Airlines has become the world's fastest growing airline company. Its CEO, Temel Kotil, explained toEuropolitics why Istanbul is Europe's natural hub for passengers heading to Asia and Africa. The tender for the construction of the city's huge third airport was published on 24 January in theOfficial Gazette of the Republic of Turkey .

Airports are great, but on a continent where people fly, as some of my seat-mates on this itinerary have, from Washington to Addis Ababa in order to get to Lagos, what is needed most are flights -- many more flights -- both between the U.S. and Africa (there are currently precious few), and between African countries themselves.

Why is it that the country with the largest economy in the world can’t get the welcome mat right? It is now more than nine years since 9/11 and to have the premier international gateway to this nation’s capital resemble an airport in a “shambolic banana republic or poorly managed police state,” in Brûlé’s ascerbic words, is unconscionable.