Dakar Airport was in heavy use during the second world war but today is perhaps best known for the number of hawkers who set upon passengers landing there, hawkers whose activities are ignored by police and airport officials, who themselves are often accused of taking passenger's belongings during security checks or imposing fines for non-offences and pocketing the monies paid! In fact an eminent pilot noted in 2007 that at Dakar airport you will find "only squalor, an unnerving sense of confinement and to some extent danger".

Dakar Airport handles over two million passengers a year and is served by a number of travel airlines as well as doubling as a military airport. It came to prominence during the Second World War when it served as a vital link in the United States Army Air Force Air Transport command. This video shows a flight landing at Dakar airport and also shows the breath taking approach to Senegal over the Atlantic Ocean.

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