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Cabo Rojo International Airport in Pedernales in the south of the country on the border with Haiti will serve an area popular with tourists.

The Pro-Pedernales Trust, a government agency represented by the Dominican Republic’s Directorate General for Public-Private Partnerships (DGAPP), has awarded the runway contract, worth €62 million (US$66.6 million).

The runway will be 3.1km long and 60m wide. The project also involves construction of a taxiway, parking and safety areas, a runway safety strip, aprons for Boeing 777 aircraft and drainage works. The project is expected to take around 16 months to complete.

The Dominican government intends to use the new airport as the basis for a new tourist destination in the area. It estimates that once operational, the airport will have an annual demand of 250,000 passengers, which could increase to one million passengers by 2042, making it the third busiest airport in the country.

The plan calls for the construction of several terminals and an additional runway.

The Dominican government is planning a second phase of the project, which will include the construction of the control tower, a fire station, an electrical substation and a water and wastewater treatment plant. A passenger and cargo terminal is also planned for later stages.