A part of the international terminal at Dulles International Airport transformed from a simple waiting space to a festive area, as United Airlines prepared for an inaugural flight from Northern Virginia to Senegal.
Many people dressed in African garb for the celebratory, like Shontel Mason, a project manager who resides in Alexandria, Virginia.
“I always wanted to go to Africa,” Mason, 54, told The Informer, as she waved a small Senegalese flag. “I have been talking about taking the trip to the continent for years and a friend finally convinced me to go, so I decided to take the plunge. A friend and I looked for flights to Africa and we saw this United Airlines flight from Dulles to Dakar, Senegal and we immediately booked it. I think we hit the jackpot.”
Mason was joined by dozens of fellow passengers, United Airlines staff and airport employees for the launch of the first direct flight from the airport to Blaise Diagne International Airport in Diass, Senegal, 27 miles from Dakar’s downtown district.
United officials say it is the only nonstop connection from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to Dakar, a fact that came as a pleasant plus for Mason.
“This is a great idea for United to do this,” she said. “A friend of mine who works for USAID and who travels to Africa very often recommended Senegal.”
Details of the Dulles to Dakar United Airlines Service
United will fly three times a week from Dulles to Dakar using a Boeing 767-300ER aircraft. Company officials say that it is the airline’s shortest African route but its fourth destination on the continent, with flights already to: Accra, Ghana; Lagos, Nigeria; and Cape Town, South Africa.
In its assessment, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Office said Senegal is among the politically stable and economically expanding countries in West Africa. Additionally, the Washington metropolitan area has a large number of people of Senegalese descent, United officials say.
“There is a huge Senegalese community in the D.C. area,” said Adaja Fall, the lead flight attendant, a native of Senegal who lives in Alexandria. “This way, they can hop on United and go home.”
Isidor Marcel Sene, minister-counsellor for the Embassy of Senegal also touted the benefit of the new route from the D.C. area to Dakar.
“This route makes it easy for us now,” said. “We have no need to go through New York in order to go home.”
Patrick Quayle, United’s vice president of international planning, said his airline will look to expand to other destinations in the Dulles international terminal.
Further, Jack Potter, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, echoed Quayle’s expansion hopes by noting the construction of another international terminal at Dulles and expressed optimism about the Dulles-Dakar route.
“We hope this goes from three times a week to daily,” said Potter.
Reflections on Dulles-Dakar Connection
Sene said the route will be a benefit to Senegal.
“There will be more business trips, more family vacations and more personal adventures for visitors,” he said. “Senegal is a stable country, and it is attractive to business investors. The beaches are great, the people are great, and we respect each other. We invite you to visit Senegal.”
Fall, 49, felt honored to be on the flight and said she particularly looks forward to seeing her sister in the Dakar area.
“I have not seen her since COVID,” she told The Informer.
For pilot Babacar Faye, a first officer for United Airlines, the trip is a homecoming.
Faye, 48, said he was humbled to be a part of the inaugural flight.
“Words cannot explain how I feel,” he said. “I feel grateful to be a part of this. I have wanted to be a pilot since the age of five and I grew up in Dakar.”
Faye, who resides in Lake Wiley, South Carolina, and commutes to Dulles to pilot airplanes, said the Dulles-Dakar connection is meaningful because it “ties the capital of the U.S. to the capital of Senegal.”
“For the airline to link, where the president of the United States sits to my country, is very significant,” he emphasized.
