Blaise Diagne will take over services from Senegal’s current flagship airport Léopold Sédar Senghor International in capital city Dakar, which will cease operations.
The $575 million megaproject is envisioned as the centerpiece of an ambitious new development program.
Breathing space
The new airport is based in rural Diass, around 40 kilometers east of Dakar.
The remote location offers more space for the project than the crowded capital, where the existing airport has been affected by heavy traffic congestion.
Blaise Diagne occupies a 4,500-hectare site compared with 800 hectares at Léopold Sédar Senghor. The new airport also boasts a larger terminal and runways that can accommodate more passengers and flights.
“The AIBD airport is definitely a state-of-the-art infrastructure project,” says El Hadji Beye, a civil engineer specializing in West Africa. “The new facility’s increased size can accommodate larger planes like the Airbus A380 and will handle much more air traffic than before.”
The AIBD development team expects Blaise Diagne to become a primary hub of the West Africa region and a “preferred stopover point for air traffic in Africa, Europe and the Americas.”