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Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport

Coordinates: 14°44′22″N 017°29′24″W / 14.73944°N 17.49000°W / 14.73944; -17.49000
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For Dakar's main international airport, see Blaise Diagne International Airport.

Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport

Aéroport international Léopold-Sédar-Senghor
Summary
Airport typePublic / Military
ServesDakar
LocationYoff, Senegal
Elevation AMSL85 ft / 26 m
Coordinates14°44′22″N 017°29′24″W / 14.73944°N 17.49000°W / 14.73944; -17.49000
Websiteaeroport-dakar.com
Map
DKR is located in Senegal
DKR
DKR
Location of airport in Senegal
Map
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
18/36 3,490 11,450 Asphalt
03/21 1,500 4,921 Asphalt
Statistics (2013)
Passengers2,200,000
Source: Airport website,[1] DAFIF[2][3]

Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport (French: Aéroport international Léopold-Sédar-Senghor,[1] IATA: DKR, ICAO: GOOY) is an international airport serving Dakar, the capital of Senegal. The airport is situated near the town of Yoff, a northern suburb of Dakar. It was known as Dakar-Yoff International Airport (French: Aéroport international de Dakar-Yoff) until 9 October 1996,[1] when it was renamed in honor of Léopold Sédar Senghor, the first president of Senegal.

The airport can handle wide body jets, including the Airbus A340-600 from South African Airways, and the Boeing 777-200 from Air France. In 2015, the airport served about 1,986,000 passengers.

Construction of a replacement airport, Blaise Diagne International, 45 km inland from Léopold Sédar Senghor, began in 2007. Saudi Binladin Group constructed the new airport, named after the first black African elected to France's parliament in 1914, Blaise Diagne. It was initially expected to take 30 months to build and is designed for an initial capacity of 3 million passengers a year – almost double the 1.7 million annual traffic handled by the existing airport.[4] Blaise Diagne was delayed several times and finally opened on December 7, 2017.[5] As of March 2020 Senghor Airport serves only charter flights and scheduled cargo services, but not regular passenger flights.

History

During World War II, Dakar Airport was a key link in the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command Natal-Dakar air route, which provided a transoceanic link between Brazil and French West Africa after 1942. Massive amounts of cargo were stored at Dakar, which were then transported along the North African Cairo-Dakar transport route for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel. From Dakar, flights were made to Dakhla Airport, near Villa Cisneros in what was then Spanish Sahara, or to Atar Airport, depending on the load on the air route. In addition to being the western terminus of the North African route, Dakar was the northern terminus for the South African route, which transported personnel to Pretoria, South Africa, with numerous stopovers at Robertsfield (now Roberts International Airport), Liberia, the Belgian Congo and Northern Rhodesia.[6]

Before the introduction of long-range jets in the mid-1970s, it was an important stopover point for the routes between Europe and South America, along with the Canary Islands.

The airport was a Space Shuttle landing site until 1987, when it was determined that a dip in the runway could damage the shuttle upon landing.[7]

It was one of the five main hubs of the now defunct multi-national airline Air Afrique.

The airport has often been used as a stopover on flights between North America and Southern Africa. Delta Air Lines started service on 4 December 2006 between Atlanta and Johannesburg, with an intermediate stop in Dakar. This stopover has since been removed, with Dakar now served nonstop by Delta from New York–JFK. South African Airways used Dakar as a stopover with both its flights from Johannesburg to Washington and New York. The stopover for the New York–JFK flight was later removed, while the Johannesburg to Washington–Dulles flight now operates via Accra.

Senegal Airlines had a hub operation and their headquarters at the airport before the company's demise in April, 2016.[8][9][10]

Other facilities

The head office of Agence Nationale de l'Aviation Civile du Sénégal is also on the airport property.[11]

At one time Air Sénégal International had its head office on the grounds of the airport.[12]

The airport is also home to the French Air Force's Dakar-Ouakam Air Base (Base aérienne Dakar-Ouakam; also known as Air Base 160, Base aérienne 160 Dakar-Ouakam). The Dakar-Ouakam Air Base formed the military section of the airport.

Airlines and destinations

Cargo

AirlinesDestinations
Air France Cargo Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Emirates SkyCargo Campinas–Viracopos, Dubai–Al Maktoum[13]
Lufthansa Cargo Buenos Aires–Ezeiza, Campinas–Viracopos, Frankfurt, Montevideo
Med Airlines Casablanca
ULS Airlines Cargo Istanbul–Atatürk
Turkish Airlines Cargo Istanbul–Atatürk,[14] Kano,[15] Campinas–Viracopos [14]

Statistics

Annual statistics
Year Total passengers Change Cargo (in tonnes) Change
2001[16] 1,279,028 N/A 23,387 N/A
2002[16] 1,358,538 +6.2% Increase 16,953 -38.0% Decrease
2003[16] 1,482,726 +9.1% Increase 17,051 +0.6% Increase
2004[16] 1,566,573 +5.7% Increase 21,159 +24.1% Increase
2005[16] 1,605,010 +2.5% Increase 24,795 +17.2% Increase
2006[17] 1,676,881 +4.5% Increase 22,032 -12.5% Decrease
2007[18] 1,821,956 +8.7% Increase 24,771 +12.4% Increase
2008[19] 1,802,559 -1.1% Decrease 21,789 -13.7% Decrease
2009[19] 1,554,546 -13.8% Decrease 21,572 -1.0% Decrease
2010[20] 1,687,006 +8.5% Increase 24,112 +11.8% Increase

Incidents

  • On 29 August 1960, Air France Flight 343 crashed while attempting to land at Dakar-Yoff Airport during the precursor to what became Hurricane Donna. All 63 passengers and crew on board were killed.[21]

References

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

  1. ^ a b c (in French) Aéroport international Léopold-Sédar-Senghor Archived 16 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine, official website
  2. ^ Airport information for GOOY from DAFIF (effective October 2006)
  3. ^ Airport information for DKR at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective October 2006).
  4. ^ Independent Newspapers Online. "Wade lays foundation for new airport". Independent Online. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  5. ^ Carley Petesch. "Senegal opens new international airport with economic hopes". AP. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  6. ^ "Map of worldwide routes of Air Transport Command, September 1945". Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  7. ^ "Space Shuttle Transoceanic Abort Landing (TAL) Sites: Banjul, Gambia". John F. Kennedy Space Center. Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  8. ^ "Dakar shuts down Senegal Airlines; new carrier to emerge". ch-aviation. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  9. ^ Cisse, Malick. "Africa's airline graveyard piles up: Senegal shuts down national carrier amid $110 million debt". Mail & Guardian Africa. Archived from the original on 16 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  10. ^ Mentions Légales Archived 13 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine." Sénégal Airlines. Retrieved on 27 January 2011.
  11. ^ "Accueil Archived 7 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine." Agence Nationale de l'Aviation Civile du Sénégal. Retrieved on 27 January 2011. "BP : 8184 AEROPORT LEOPOLD SEDAR SENGHOR DAKAR-YOFF"
  12. ^ "Directory: World Airlines." Flight International. 12–18 March 2002. 63.
  13. ^ "Emirates SkyCargo Freighter Operations get ready for DWC move". Emirates SkyCargo. 2 April 2014.
  14. ^ a b "Turkish Cargo freighter to Sao Paulo". Air Cargo News. Archived from the original on 29 August 2017. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  15. ^ Turkish Airlines Cargo begin new service on route Istanbul-Kano-Dakar-Istanbul
  16. ^ a b c d e "Situation Economique et Sociale de la Région de Dakar (Édition 2005)" (PDF) (in French). Agence Nationale de la statistique et de la démographie. p. 140. Archived from the original (pdf) on 12 January 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  17. ^ "Situation Economique et Sociale de la Région de Dakar (Édition 2006)" (PDF) (in French). Agence Nationale de la statistique et de la démographie. October 2007. pp. 219–220. Archived from the original (pdf) on 20 September 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  18. ^ "Situation Economique et Sociale (Édition 2008)" (PDF) (in French). Agence Nationale de la statistique et de la démographie. November 2009. p. 148. Archived from the original (pdf) on 13 November 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  19. ^ a b "Rapport de la Situation Economique et Sociale (Ed. 2009)" (PDF) (in French). Agence Nationale de la statistique et de la démographie. 6 January 2011. p. 167. Archived from the original (pdf) on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  20. ^ "Situation Economique et Sociale (Édition 2010)" (PDF) (in French). Agence Nationale de la statistique et de la démographie. December 2011. p. 228. Archived from the original (pdf) on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2012. Les mouvements de passagers ont aussi crû de 8,5%, passant de 1 554 546 en 2009 à 1 687 006 passagers en 2010. [...] Le fret a également progressé de 21 572 tonnes en 2009 à 24 112 en 2010, soit un accroissement de 11,8%
  21. ^ Harro Ranter (29 August 1960). "ASN Aircraft accident Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation F-BHBC Dakar-Yoff Airport (DKR)". Retrieved 6 June 2015.
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