Gov’t renames Kotoka Airport to Accra International Airport to honor land donors – Ayariga

Parliament is preparing to debate a bill seeking to rename Kotoka International Airport as Accra International Airport and this is a move the government says aims to recognize resident whose lands were used for the construction of the facility.

Mahama Ayariga who is Majority Leader, said the bill would be laid in Parliament this session and he also stated that the proposed Airport Bill aims to restore the original name of the airport. He argued that the current name does not reflect the sacrifices made by the people of Accra.

‎Mr. Ayariga stated that the Minister for Transport will present the bill to seek parliamentary approval for the proposed change. During the time he was speaking to journalists during a parliamentary leadership media briefing on Tuesday [February 3, 2026], Mr Ayariga drew to attention that it was unfair for the airport to carry a name that did not relate to the original landowners. Mr. Ayariga said that “It is not fair to the people of Accra. They gave their land for the airport, it was named after their city, and then it was changed to another name, even though the land did not come from there.”

The airport was previously called Accra International Airport when it opened in 1958. In 1969, the name was changed to Kotoka International Airport in honor of Lieutenant General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka. Lieutenant General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka was a member of the National Liberation Council (NLC), and he was killed at the airport area during an abortive coup attempt on April 17, 1967.

Mr Ayariga said the change being proposed would fix what he described as a historical wrong. He highlighted that “We are going back to using Accra as the name of the airport in recognition of the people who gave up their land.”

He drew to attention that the proposal was not intended to question or erase the history of Lieutenant General Kotoka. “This has nothing to do with his personality. I do not see a reason why an airport should not be named after him. The point is that when you remove a name that reflected where the land came from and replace it with another, it creates a cycle where names can be changed again in the future.”

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