Flights to and from Dakar’s Blaise Diagne International Airport were canceled Friday after controllers announced they would strike for 24 hours just days after the facility opened.
The controllers are reportedly unhappy with working conditions and are demanding compensation to cover the long travel time to the new airport. They say they were striking to protect travelers because they did not receive enough training before the new facility opened.
“There is new, latest-generation equipment that has been installed. We have not been trained on that equipment,” said Mame Alioune Sene, the president of the union representing the airport’s air traffic controllers.
The union is also demanding increased stipends for employees to get to work because the new airport is 45 kilometers (28 miles) outside the city center. Dakar’s previous international airport, Leopold Sedar Senghor, now a military airport, is in the city’s suburbs.
The airport that cost more than $600 million to build was inaugurated only a week ago after more than 10 years of delays.
The government said the airport would help make Senegal a hub for transportation and tourism in West Africa.
According to airport officials, about 30 flights had been canceled because of the strike.
“With [air] traffic interrupted, it means some 30 flights won’t come here today. That’s around 5,000 passengers, so of course it’s an important loss for the airport, but first and foremost it’s an incredible inconvenience for passengers and for the airlines,” said Xavier Mary, head of LAS, the Turkish-Senegalese consortium that manages the airport.
Air traffic controllers warned that the strike could be extended if their terms were not met.
