Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport
commercial airport serving Dakar and sole international airport of Senegal
Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport (French: Aéroport international Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, IATA: DKR, ICAO: GOOY) is an international freight and former passenger 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, when it was renamed in honor of Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–2001), the first president of Senegal.
History
In the 1920s and 1930s, Dakar was originally served by Ouakam Airfield, which operated airmail services and civilian transport by Air France. By 1943, the airfield was too small for heavy aircraft, and was unable to handle growing air traffic. In 1944, Mullard Airfield (now Dakar Airport) was established. By the 1960s, French Air Force operations were relocated from the old airfield to Mullard Airfield.
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.
“Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport” enters the record as commercial airport serving Dakar and sole international airport of Senegal. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Léopold, Sédar and Senghor can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Léopold, Sédar and Senghor provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q513689. Authority coordinates are 14.744, -17.479. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996, 1906, 2001 and 1943.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport primary sources, Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport archive and Léopold research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.