Dakar, Senegals airport - Experiences/advice?

[Ibhayi]

I understand this thread is possibly in bad taste but I have not really ventured into Africa and on Monday I am going to Senegal. Does anybody have any advice/suggestions I should keep in mind?

[IFLy4Free]

I have been in Dakar Airport at night, it is easy to find what you need. People are very nice. You should have no problems

[Gouabafla]

Dakar is fine, it's a good airport which is used by thousands of French tourists each year. It's certainly one of the best run and easiest airports to use in Francophone Africa.

[JTrain]

Dakar airport is fine, if you ignore the b.s. Senegalese make-work project that is those on-board security checks any aircraft transiting through DKR has to do. Example JNB - DKR - JFK on SAA, you'll land on a tech stop at 2 am, and despite everybody being asleep and bound for New York, airport "security" agents will tear the airplane apart, waking everybody up, ripping up seat cushions, going through all the overhead bins, completely ignorant of the fact the airplane, its pax and cargo having been screened in Jo'burg. Its complete and utter nonsense, with the only real point being for those security agents to justify their job. Classic African waste. If only JNB wasn't so hot + with the elevation.....then we could pack enough fuel and skip over DKR. SAA evidently agrees with me, as the return leg of the IAD trip goes nonstop IAD - JNB, so the pax don't have to put up with this DKR b.s. Delta as well, as they're rumored to be putting one of their new 777s on the ATL - JNB route, which would eliminate the need for the tech stop their 767s make in DKR.

[Cap Loko]

Agree with above posts. I've been there several times.
However, unfortunately i've also been (attempted) ripped off a couple of times by certain ASECNA personell. So please do count your money when paying landing fees etc.
Such a shame for the country as the Senegalese (including most ASECNA personell) are very friendly.
Other than that, airport is a pleasure to operate from. Good ground handling too.

[evanb]

1) The security check at DKR is a TSA requiredment. Nothing to do with DKR specifically!
2) SAA have put the stop back on IAD-JNB so now runs IAD-DKR-JNB again just like JFK-DKR-JNB. The weight penalty is costing too much with the current fuel prices.
3) Delta will not put a 777-200 LR on the route since it cannot to MTOW out of JNB due to tyre speed restrictions. They were going to upgrade capacity by using a 777-200 non-LR but they have chosen to start JFK-DKR-CPT instead and is timed to connect with ATL-DKR-JNB. Using a non-stop on the ATL-JNB leg would mess up the connections with the JFK flight!