Sierra Leone suspended the $25 Lungi airport security fee. Yogi breaks down what arriving travelers pay in 2026, what to skip, and how to avoid terminal scams.
Yogi here, writing from the homestay in Lungi about ten minutes from the terminal. If you're flying into Freetown this week and you've been reading old blog posts warning you to have $25 in crisp US bills ready for a security fee at the airport — stop packing that anxiety. The Government of Sierra Leone has suspended the $25 airport security fee, and I want to walk you through what that actually means on the ground, because the gap between "policy announced" and "staff at the desk got the memo" is where travelers usually get burned.
The fee in question is the $25 per-passenger security charge that had been collected at Freetown International Airport (Lungi, code FNA) on top of the ticketed taxes. It was a separate cash or card payment travelers had to make at a desk in the terminal — arriving passengers were the ones most affected, and it was widely disliked because it wasn't bundled into the airline ticket and it caught people off guard.
According to reporting from The Sierra Leone Telegraph and other local outlets, the government has now suspended the collection of this fee. "Suspended" is the important word — it's not the same as "permanently abolished by law." Suspensions in Sierra Leone (and everywhere, honestly) can be reversed, extended, or replaced with a different fee under a different name. So treat this as good news for travelers arriving right now, but check again before your next trip.
Assuming your airline ticket already includes standard international departure/arrival taxes (it almost certainly does — Kenya Airways, Brussels, Air Peace, ASKY, Air France, Turkish, all bundle these), here is the realistic list of things you may still need to pay in cash or card at Lungi on arrival:
What you should not be paying right now: a separate $25 security fee at a desk inside the terminal. If someone in a uniform or a lanyard tries to route you to a desk asking for $25 cash for "security," that is where you politely ask to see the official notice and where you mention that the fee has been suspended.
This is the part I actually want to hammer on, because I've watched it happen. Whenever a fee gets suspended, three things happen at busy airports in the region:
Rule of thumb I give every guest: if it's a real government fee, there is a printed sign, a desk with a computer, and a receipt. If any of those three are missing, it's not a government fee.
Yes, but less than before. I'd say $60-80 in small US bills (5s, 10s, 20s — nothing older than 2013, no tears, no ink) covers you comfortably for water taxi + a first-night buffer even if a card machine is down. Leones you can pull from an ATM in Freetown or change at a legitimate bureau. Don't change money with the guy who approaches you in the parking lot — the rate is bad and the count is worse.
One quiet effect of the fee suspension: the total cost of a Lungi arrival is meaningfully lower now. For travelers landing late at night — which is most of the European and Middle East connections — staying on the Lungi side and crossing to Freetown the next morning in daylight was already the sensible move. It's now $25 cheaper per person than it was, which for a family of four is a real dinner. If you're arriving after dark, skip the night-time water crossing, sleep near the airport, and cross when you can actually see the estuary.
We keep a couple of rooms at the homestay specifically for late arrivals — airport pickup, hot shower, a plate of food, and an honest briefing on what tomorrow morning looks like. No fee theatrics.
Fees change. Suspensions get lifted. Message us before you fly if you want the current-week ground truth from someone who is literally at the airport most days.
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