Dominican Rep vows to begin building Cabo Rojo airport in March

The government of the Dominican Republic has vowed to begin construction of Cabo Rojo international airport – part of the Cabo Rojo tourism complex – in March this year. 

This was announced by the director of public-private partnerships, Sigmund Freund.

The airport will be built in the southwest of the country, in Tres Charcos in the Oviedo municipality of Pedernales province. 

On November 21, the Dominican government awarded the contract to conduct the pre-feasibility studies to the company Indra Sistemas for 3.4mn pesos (US$58,000), and on November 30 the Dominican airport department awarded the design of the facilities to a consortium formed by Ghesa and IEG Pedernales for 198mn pesos. 

The Pro-Pedernales trust launched tender FID-2023-0002 for the construction works, which includes the runway, taxiways, a parking area for aircraft and the runway safety strip, for approximately US$63.7mn. The process is ongoing, and the second envelopes containing the economic bids will be opened on February 23. The contract is expected to be awarded by March 4.

The international airport is part of the first phase of the US$2.25bn Cabo Rojo tourism development plan, which includes the construction of luxury and ecological hotels with sustainable energy generation capacity, as well as residential housing in the area.

It is estimated that when it begins operations, the airport will serve 250,000 passengers per year, a figure that is projected to increase to 1mn passengers per year by 2042, which will make it the third busiest air terminal in the country.

With the additional arrivals, the project includes construction of a second runway and second terminal in a later phase.

The airport master plan published by PPP promotion agency DGAPP outlines the construction of two runways with capacity for 13 commercial flights per hour during peak times, and one terminal building. The airport will also handle cargo flights.