The first airfield at Cayenne, called "Gallion," was built in 1943 in ten months by the U.S. Army Air Corps as a base allowing bombers to reach Africa. Though quickly abandoned upon the completion of the new airport, it can still be found very close to the aerodrome. The new airport was first given the name "Rochambeau" in reference to
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, commander-in-chief of the French troops in the
American Revolutionary War. It was purchased by France in 1949. This name was controversial because the airport's namesake's son,
Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau, harshly repressed the
Haitian Revolution during the
Saint-Domingue expedition.
Christiane Taubira, then-Member of the
National Assembly of France for Guiana, requested in 1999 that the name be changed. Multiple proposals were submitted, including
Cépérou, a seventeenth-century indigenous chief. It was finally renamed
Félix Éboué Airport in 2012, the change becoming official in January of that year. The
code for the airport remains CAY. Félix Eboué Airport serves approximately 400,000 passengers per year. Cayenne-Rochambeau
Air Base 367 is co-located with Félix-Eboué Airport. Very close to this airfield is the former "Gallion" airfield, used in 1943 and then quickly abandoned when the new airport was used. It is classified SSLIA in category 7 (classification A). Traffic at Cayenne-Félix-Eboué airport stood at 558,889 passengers in 2019, an increase of 8.8% since 2016. In 2022 it stood at 488,721 passengers, an increase since the health crisis. Its management is ensured by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of French Guyana . ==Facilities==