Blaise Diagne International Airport (french: link=no, Aéroport international Blaise Diagne, ) is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer r ...

near the town of Diass in

Thiès Region Thiès is a region of western Senegal. The capital is also called Thiès. Geography Thiès has two coastlines, one in the north with the Grande Côte housing the Niayes vegetable market, one to the south with the Petite Côte, one of the tour ...

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

, east of downtown

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

. It serves as the main airport for Dakar, replacing Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport, which had become too small. It is named after

Blaise Diagne Blaise Diagne (13 October 1872 – 11 May 1934) was a Senegalese and French political leader and mayor of Dakar. He was the first person of West African origin elected to the French Chamber of Deputies, and the first to hold a position in the Fr ...

, the first black African elected to France's parliament in 1914. Regular flights are operated from it to destinations across many parts of Africa, as well as to Europe,

Macaronesia Macaronesia (Portuguese: ''Macaronésia,'' Spanish: ''Macaronesia'') is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and Europe. Each archipelago is made up of a number of Atlantic oceanic islands ...

, the Middle East, and the USA.

History

The airport was originally expected to be operational at the end of the year 2011, but this date was pushed back by almost a year in September of that year. In September 2012, Senegalese Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye announced that the airport would open in the first quarter of 2014. In January 2015, word spread that the airport would open in June 2015. On April 4, 2015

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...

announced a new opening date for early 2016. The expected building costs rose to 566 million

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s, with over 400 million coming from the Saudi Binladin Group. The airport finally opened for scheduled operations on December 7, 2017.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Dakar Blaise Diagne Airport:

Cargo

Statistics

Ground transportation

The

Train Express Regional The Train Express Regional (TER) is airport rail link in Senegal that connects Dakar with the Blaise Diagne International Airport. It was built by French companies Engie and Thales Group. The contract is valued at €2 billion. History Const ...

is a rail-link between the airport and Dakar. It opened on 14 January 201

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Airports in Senegal Airports established in 2017 2017 establishments in Senegal Thiès Region