Details have been released of a new international airport project in Senegal to replace the existing Leopold Sedar Senghor airport of Dakar-Yoff.

Costing €260m, the new facility will drastically enhance the original facility with 2,000ha to the existing airport’s 800ha, and the capacity to handle 3 million passengers each year. There are also plans for two 4,000m by 60m runways and premises for storing the large volumes of fresh produce that pass through the airport on a regular basis.

The new facility is to be positioned 45km inland from Leopold Sedar Senghor and will be named after Blaise Diagne, the first black African elected to France’s parliament in 1914. Funding for the 42,000 sq m terminal was supplied by a cluster of financial corporations.