I'm considering a one-hour connection in ACC, and am trying to understand how crazy that would be. (Surprisingly, it apparently is within the legal MCT.) I typically would not book a one-hour international connection, but this is the only option that avoids an overnight. That said, I'm wondering if a planned overnight isn't better than a high probability of an unplanned overnight!

I haven't flown through ACC in 25 years, so have no idea what the transit facilities might be. Anyone have more recent experience? I'd be arriving on KQ and transferring to KL if that makes any difference.

Both KQ and KL are handled by Menzies in Accra and there are a fair number of connecting pax off KQ's FNA/ROB flights interlining to G0/BA/KL/SA.

When you get off the aircraft and head towards arrivals, you will see a stairway on the right hand side labelled "TRANSIT". There should be a Menzies agent manning the transit desk there. Collect your boarding pass from them and climb the stairs to the security checkpoint. The checkpoint releases you right next to Gate 1, which is where KLM departs from. The whole exercise should take you between 8-10 minutes at most.

I've managed 15-minute connections at ACC in the past, so 60-minutes is definitely not a problem if flights are on time.

Good to hear from you, B747, it's been a while! Your guess was precisely right---will be doing the ROB/AMS transfer. It's easier in the winter, but during the summer the timings only leave an hour, so was a bit worried. I'll book it at your advice, but will certainly let you know if we end up on the DL flight in the morning after missing the KL flight to AMS

An additional question: it sounds from the above that ACC has official "in transit" facilities, or are you required to officially enter Ghana---thereby requiring a (transit) visa? If the latter, does anyone know if Ghana has multiple-entry transit visas, or if you need one for each connection (we'll be transiting ACC in both directions of our round trip).

Finally, should we mis-connect and be forced to overnight, are there facilities for on-arrival visas, or would we be better served by getting a tourist visa just in case?

(Timatic seems to imply we don't need visas for airport transfers, and on-arrival transfer visas for overnight hotel stays are available for US$20, but I've read conflicting info on the web that these are no longer available. Anyone with first hand knowledge is much appreciated.)

a) ACC absolutely does support international transits without need for visa. As mentioned earlier, there are a fair number of passengers who connect from regional to longhaul flights at Accra.

b) Visa-on-arrival is available for $20 (Transit) or $100 (Visit) if you want to go landside. A transit visa is valid for upto 72 hrs and requires that your previous and next ticketed points are in different countries (eg. LOS-ACC-LOS does not count, but ROB-ACC-AMS would be ok). For a Visit Visa you need to either have prior approval, have a family member who is/was a Ghanaian citizen, or else be sponsored by the airline/other approved sponsor. Depending on the mood of the shift manager, you can sometimes get away with filling in a hotel name as your sponsor without any additional documentation. All payments in US Dollar cash only. Insist on a receipt as they check these at time of departure. ATM and Bureau de Change facilities are available.

c) All visa-on-arrival visas are single entry (these usually aren't actual "visas" - they just stamp your passport and issue you a receipt for the sum collected - the only machine that can print the actual visa labels has been broken since February).

So are you saying if one is doing JFK-ACC-JFK for a 36 hour visit that a transit visa is not allowed?

Is the airport fairly modern with any lounge facilities? I realize this could be a hilarious question, but places like ADD and NBO have nice facilities.

Correct. You need a full visa ($100) rather than the transit visa.

Both are available as visa-on-arrival though, despite what TIMATIC tells you.

Modern, umm, sorta.

Lounges, there are two. The AHS Menzies lounge which is used by the Skyteam carriers is horrendously awful. It is probably the worst ever lounge at an airport. The Aviance Adinkra lounge on the other hand is absolutely world class, and is used by BA, Lufthansa, Emirates, Ghana International, etc...

I wouldn't consider Nairobi airport to be "nice". Accra is definitely nicer than Nairobi but not quite the level of Addis.

(The below is a bit of a trip report for posterity to aid future searchers.)

Not sure if they use different procedures for the (far busier) evening bank, but the transit process for the morning-arrival DL flight was slow and manual. We used the left-most entrance hall when facing the terminal, so there were no stairs as described above. First, be careful not to walk past the very small transfer desk at the end of the hall, where all transfer passengers were assembled. Once the entire plane emptied, we were escorted through immigration (no formalities/visa/passport check required) and into baggage claim.

DESPITE our baggage being checked through, it was cycling 'round on the beltway, so we retrieved it. Our transit 'handler' suggested we just leave it against the wall since it was tagged through and assured us someone would take care of it--not the most comforting assurance, but there weren't any options. Afterwards, we were escorted all the way out of the airport and then back through normal international checkin---again, at no point were any docs checked, but I also didn't try to evade our handler, so not sure if I would have been accosted had I tried to flee.

FWIW, after checkin for KQ we were given passes to the Menzies lounge B747-347B describes above. While certainly a huge step down from the beautiful Aviance lounge in the central shopping area, it is air conditioned, has a fine selection of food and beverages, and a nice view of the tarmac. Pretty luxurious by west African standards, and I certainly wouldn't describe it as a disaster---I've been in far worse clubs in the US! (LAX WC comes to mind...) Plus, free WiFi (which enables me to make this post).