PUNTA CANA, LA ALTAGRACIA – Punta Cana International Airport is preparing to meet the anticipated increase in passenger demand, given the projected boom in Dominican tourism. Maintaining the high standards that have always characterized it, the airport announces the expansion of its Terminal B, which will double its current capacity by adding seven new gates.
The project, announced last Sunday by its executives in the presence of President Luis Abinader, will involve an investment of US$80 million. It will have the capacity to handle three million passengers on a 25,000 m² site and will feature seven gates: two for wide-body aircraft and five for standard-sized aircraft. The terminal will have a total of fourteen parking positions.
“This project will allow us to anticipate the demand generated by the significant growth in hotel supply, which is expected to add 15,000 new rooms to the region in the coming years. We will be able to receive 1.5 million more tourists, bringing the airport's passenger capacity to over 5.5 million,” explained Frank Elías Rainieri, president and CEO of the Puntacana Group.
Scheduled for completion in November of this year, “Terminal B will be ready to host the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pre-screening service, which we are confident will be approved due to the competitive advantages it offers the Dominican Republic as a tourist and investment destination,” Rainieri stated.
A recent report on the economic impact of the preclearance program for flights to the United States from airports in other countries asserts that the measure creates “economic development because it promotes increased trade and attracts new businesses, encourages investment, and creates jobs.”.
The Dominican Republic signed a pre-authorization agreement in 2016 to include the pre-authorization process at Dominican airports, which would grant access to at least 66 airports in the United States. This agreement is currently pending approval by the Constitutional Court. If approved, the airports of Las Américas, La Romana, Punta Cana, Santiago, Puerto Plata, Samaná, and Pedernales (once it opens) would benefit.
The executive argued that the expansion of Terminal B will have a major impact on the economy due to the stimulus it will provide to the growth of tourism and agricultural and industrial exports, the creation of new business and investment opportunities, the generation of jobs and an entire value chain that benefits.
To meet the demands of growth, the terminal as a whole has undergone 25 expansions and renovations. “Our goal is to maintain the prestige earned by Punta Cana International Airport, whose service quality has led the international institution Airport Service Quality to rank it as the best airport in Latin America in its category for five consecutive years. Furthermore, we will be able to expand our network to 26 countries and 64 cities served by direct flights,” stated the CEO of the Punta Cana Group.
First private airport
Punta Cana International Airport was the first airport in the world developed and managed by a private company. It took ten years and the approval of two different governments to become operational.
According to data provided by Rainieri during his presentation at the event last Sunday, in the past decade the airport received 31 million tourists, representing 65% of those who arrived in the country through all airports.
During those years, he said, the average annual growth in arrivals to the country was 5%, and for Punta Cana, 6%. “We generated 104 billion pesos in revenue for the State in the past decade from airport fees alone, not including income tax and ITBIS (Value Added Tax).”.
