Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport
international airport serving French Guyana
Cayenne – Félix Éboué Airport (French: Aéroport de Cayenne – Félix Éboué, IATA: CAY, ICAO: SOCA) is French Guiana's main international airport. It is located near the commune of Matoury, 13 kilometres (8 mi) southwest of French Guiana's capital city of Cayenne. It is managed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of French Guiana (CCI Guyane).
History
The first airfield at Cayenne, called "Gallion," was built in 1943 in ten months by the U.S. Army Air Corps as a base allowing bombers to reach Africa. Though quickly abandoned upon the completion of the new airport, it can still be found very close to the aerodrome.
The new airport was first given the name "Rochambeau" in reference to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, commander-in-chief of the French troops in the American Revolutionary War. It was purchased by France in 1949.
This name was controversial because the airport's namesake's son, Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau, harshly repressed the Haitian Revolution during the Saint-Domingue expedition. Christiane Taubira, then-Member of the National Assembly of France for Guiana, requested in 1999 that the name be changed. Multiple proposals were submitted, including Cépérou, a seventeenth-century indigenous chief.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport” is international airport serving French Guyana. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cayenne, Félix and Eboué, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “international airport serving French Guyana” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q794542. VIAF identifies the subject as 128185073. The Library of Congress control number is n2010201462. Authority coordinates are 4.820, -52.362. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1949 and 1999.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. 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
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
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 “Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport primary sources, Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport archive and Cayenne 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
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Cayenne – Félix Eboué 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.