Blaise Diagne airport Senegal – The Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD) in Diass, 47 km from Dakar, will be operational next year, the Senegalese senior minister in charge of international cooperation, air transport, infrastructure and energy, Karim Wade, announced on Monday in Dakar.

He was speaking to journalists after the signing of the financial agreement for 406 million euros earmarked to cover the construction of the airport estimated at 566 million euros.

According to him, after the official inauguration of the new airport, there will be a series of tests, verifications of equipment and certifications of the structure.

Mr Wade also announced that Blaise Diagne International Airport would create 3,000 direct jobs and 12,000 indirect jobs mainly intended for the youths in the region of Thies, 70 km from Dakar, and all the neighbouring rural communities of the airport site.

'Over and above the project’s numerous impacts on the life of the Senegalese, we are developing a new airport city and a village cargo within the overall framework of a concerted development of the Diass area,' he pointed out.

Pana 20/09/2011