| Cibao International Airport Aeropuerto Internacional del Cibao |
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|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines Airbus A300 taxiing. | |||
| IATA: STI – ICAO: MDST – FAA LID: STI
STI
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| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Owner | City of Santiago | ||
| Operator | Cibao Airport Corporation | ||
| Serves | Santiago de los Caballeros | ||
| Location | Licey in Santiago Province, Dominican Republic | ||
| Hub for | |||
| Elevation AMSL | 565 ft / 172 m | ||
| Website | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 11/29 | 8,595 | 2,620 | Asphalt/Concrete |
| Helipads | |||
| Number | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| H1 | 60 | 16 | Asphalt |
| Statistics (Jan-Nov 2011) | |||
| Aircraft operations | 6,247 approx. | ||
| Passengers | 851,761 | ||
| Based Aircraft | 11 approx. | ||
| Source: Banco Central República Dominicana | |||
Cibao International Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional del Cibao) (IATA: STI, ICAO: MDST) also known as Santiago Airport, is located in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic's second largest city. It's the country's third busiest airport by passenger traffic and aircraft movements.
It has a modern terminal with some of the most advanced airport facilities in the country.
It mainly serves Dominicans residing in the United States, Cuba, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Puerto Rico and Panama.
The Airport is currently used by Aerolineas Mas as it Focus City, with regular domestic flights to La Isabela International Airport, and International Operations to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, making it the most important national carrier. JetBlue Airways is the primary international operator, with up to seven daily flights to New York-JFK and Boston.
Air Turks and Caicos, flag carrier of the Turks and Caicos Islands, designates Santiago as their major international focus city, operating more than ten flights a week, in high season, to Providenciales and Grand Turk. They were planning to add more flights from Santiago.
Aeromar Líneas Aéreas Dominicanas had their secondary hub in Cibao Airport, where they operated flights to New York City and San Juan, originated from Santiago. Aeromar is no longer in service since 2004. Santiago's Airport operated as former Hub for VolAir, which is now defunct, where they had based 3 of their aircraft. They operated flights to Puerto Plata, Punta Cana and Santo Domingo-JBQ
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Plans for the construction of the airport were first proposed in 1969. The Cibao International Airport Corporation was created on March 29, 1978 with the cooperation of José Armando Bermúdez (president), Víctor Espaillat, Manuel Arsenio Ureña, Dr. José Augusto Imbert, Mario Cáceres and Ing. Carlos S. Fondeur, who acquired the land necessary to build the new airport.
The construction of the airport began on February 15, 2000 and was finished in 2002.
The airport was inaugurated on March 18, 2002 with two direct flights to San Juan operated by American Eagle.
In May 2002 Aeromar Líneas Aéreas Dominicanas made the first direct flight from Santiago to JFK Airport in New York City. Later that month American Airlines and North American Airlines began direct flights to New York, Miami, and San Juan. A few months later Continental Airlines began direct flights from Newark. This was followed by direct service by JetBlue Airways and Delta Air Lines, both from New York.[1] Aeromar became Santiago as it secondary hub, after Las Américas International Airport.
By the end of 2005 the airport's operator began one of the biggest expansions for this airport. They expanded the custom hall and rebuilt the west and east side of the terminal. The terminal saw the addition of a second floor. This expansion was finalized in 2006. The runway 400 meters expansion is currently in folders, but there is no scheduled date to begin or conclude this expansion yet.
In April 2008, Cibao International became the first airport in the country to exonerate fees for private planes, making it possible to increase tourism in the region.
In June, 2008, Continental Airlines announced the discontinuation of their services to Santiago until September 3. Delta Air Lines announced the new service to Atlanta, starting on December 20, 2008, and the resuming of the New York route on December 13, 2008.
On September 8, 2009, Delta Air Lines stopped again its services to Atlanta.
On January 9, 2009, Spirit Airlines announced operations to Santiago City from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, starting on June 21, 2009. They are operating this route using Airbus A319 aircraft.
In 2010 the airport recovered passengers movement from last year, handling more than 900 thousand. It also became the third busiest airport by passengers in the country, been already ranked number three in aircraft operations. In this year were established also regular domestics routes from Santiago operated by Aerolineas Mas, Air Century and VolAir. Aerolineas Mas became the strongest domestic airline in the airport and started operating Santiago's Airport as a Focus City-Destination.
The Cibao Airport infrastructure consists of the main international terminal, domestic terminal and a cargo terminal. The international terminal is the most utilized and receives most of the flights operating in here and it has modern installations to make easier the check-in, boarding and baggage climb processes.
The airport's owners are planning to expand the runway and the construction of the new taxiway next to the runway by the next year.
Runway 11/29
The runway length is 2,620 m, which can support all types of passenger airliners. The airport's operators are discussing the expansion of the runway to allow larger aircraft such as a Boeing 747 for long haul flights from Europe.
Runway 11/29 is one of the most modern runways in the country; it is provided of an ILS (Instrument Landing System) for the two directions of the runway. Cibao International Airport and Las Américas International Airport are the only two airports in Dominican Republic equipped with this system.
Taxiways
Cibao International Airport's taxiways are composed by two exits E-1 and E-2; E-1 is located on the west side of Runway 11/29, next to the direction 11 of that runway. E-2 is located in the east side of the runway, next to direction 29 of the runway.[2]
Runway lighting
| RWY Designador | Tipe LEN INTST | THR LGT (Colour) WBAR | PAPI | LGT LEN | RWY Center Line LGT | RWY Edge LGT (Colour) | RWY End LGT (Colour) | SWY LGT (Colour) | ILS (Colour) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runway 11 | MALSR | Green | PAPI 4 | None | Yellow-Blue | White-Blue | Red | None | White |
| Runway 29 | Green | PAPI 4 | None | Yellow-Blue | White-Blue | Red | Yellow-White | White |
In its first year of operation (2002) the airport had up to 6 daily flights; now (2011) it has up to 25 daily flights, to the U.S., the Caribbean and Central America. Presently it doesn't offer any direct flights to Europe or Canada yet, however it is expected that it will sometime in the near future, after the runway expansion.
In 2005 the airport received an Antonov AN-124 of Volga-Dnepr, for the first time, from Spain for military activity along the border with Haiti. It remained in Santiago for two days before returning to Spain.
JetBlue, as the current largest operator, has 7 daily flights to New York and 3 weekly flights to Boston with an 87% occupation in their flights, in summer 2011, all of them operated with their Airbus A320 fleet.
American, which is the former largest operator, operated 3 daily flights. 1 to New York, 1 to Miami and 1 to San Juan, operating Boeing 767-300, Boeing 757-200 and ATR-72 Aircraft. They had an occupation of 95% of the seats.
Delta Air Lines is the third largest carrier, operates a daily flight to New York with their Boeing 757-200 aircraft in the summer. 98% of seating occupation.
Spirit Airlines, which run as the fifth largest carrier, took over the fourth place from Copa Airlines, operating a daily flight to Fort Lauderdale, only in the summer, with Airbus A320 family aircraft. Unfortunately their seating occupation was poor compared with the others carriers.
Copa Airlines operated 5 weekly flights to Panama City with 89% of seating occupation. They operated summer 2011 with both Boeing 737-700 and Embraer E-190 aircraft.
Air Tuks & Caicos operated four weekly flights to Providenciales using their Embraer E-120 fleet. Aerolineas Mas operated 6 weekly flights to Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo-JBQ, running as the sixth airline in flights but the seventh in seating capacity. Seating occupation for Aerolineas Mas was 70% and they operated JS31 Aircraft.
Air Century operated four weekly flights to Punta Cana and Santo Domingo-JBQ. They used JS31 aircraft for the summer.
Since its inauguration, Cibao International has been projected to become one of most busiest airports in terms of passenger traffic in the country. Presently it has become the third-busiest airport in the Dominican Republic, only being surpassed by the airports of Santo Domingo and Punta Cana.
The airport served more than 970 thousand passengers in 2006. While the passenger movements is increasing, the traffic operations is increasing as well, adding more frequencies and more new destinations.
In 2010 the airport recovered and is now on its way to get more than 950 thousand passengers in 2011.
Cibao Airport Corporation has expanded the international terminal, which now include a new check-in area, an extension of the commercial area with a new food court, located in the second level, a new baggage claim carousel, making a total of three, and the reconstruction of a new Duty Free Zone, and the Customs Area is now ready to be used.[3]
The airport's main terminal (international) has six gates (B1-B6).[4] Three of these gates provide boarding docks (B4-B6). It is located between the domestic terminal and the cargo terminal. It has all of the facilities of a modern airport.
Future expansion of this airport is being discussed which would include additional gates and baggage handling areas as well as expanding the taxiway.
American Airlines was formerly the largest carrier at this airport and JetBlue Airways is the current largest carrier.
The airport's domestic terminal, called too as General Aviation hall, has Three stands, (A1 to A3), and it's located next to the international terminal. It is used for domestic flights and charter private flights.
Aerolineas Mas is currently the major domestic airline in this Airport. Operating flights to Santo Domingo-JBQ and Port-au-Prince, and with plans to operate regularly to Punta Cana, Aerolineas Mas had made of this airport it Focus City. Air Century recently launched regular domestics flights from/to Santo Domingo-JBQ, Punta Cana and Puerto Plata, operating all their flights through the Domestic Terminal.
| Airlines | Destinations | Terminal |
|---|---|---|
| Aerolíneas Mas | Port-au-Prince,[5] Punta Cana | D |
| Aeronaves Dominicanas | Puerto Plata, Samaná | D |
| Air Century | Constanza, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Santo Domingo-La Isabela | D |
| Air Turks and Caicos | Providenciales Seasonal: Grand Turk |
I |
| American Airlines | Miami, New York-JFK | I |
| American Eagle | San Juan | I |
| Copa Airlines | Panama City | I |
| Delta Air Lines | New York-JFK | I |
| JetBlue Airways | Boston, New York-JFK | I |
| M&N Aviation | Seasonal: San Juan | I |
| PAWA Dominicana | Punta Cana, Santo Domingo-Las Americas | D |
| PAWA Dominicana | Seasonal: San Juan | I |
| SAP Air | Punta Cana, Santo Domingo-Las Americas | D |
| Spirit Airlines | Fort Lauderdale | I |
The airport has a cargo terminal with four stands ( C1 to C4) for cargo carriers such as Amerijet, IBC, SkyWay... These cargo carriers have regular flights from Santiago to the United States and other Caribbean islands including Saint Martin and The Bahamas and also to many domestic cargo destinations like Santo Domingo, Costanza and others. Santiago Airport is the second busiest airport by Cargo Movements in the Country behind Santo Domingo-SDQ.
Amerijet is the major cargo carrier at the airport with many flights to Miami, Port-au-Prince, St. Kitts, Santo Domingo, and other neighboring islands. They have regular weekly direct flights to Miami and Santo Domingo and to others destinations only on Sunday.
Currently, there are only two international regular carriers operating Cargo flights, but many other airlines operate their flights through this terminal with seasonal and/or charter services, making this airport the second busiest one, in terms of cargo, in the country.
Cargo carriers
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Amerijet | Miami, Port-au-Prince, Santo Domingo-Las Americas, Port of Spain, San Juan, Antigua, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Curaçao, Maracaibo Seasonal: Grenada, St. Vincent, Bridgetown, Fort de France, Georgetown, Aruba, Barcelona (VE), Puerto Plata, Kingston, Caracas, San Salvador, San Pedro Sula, Las Piedras (VE) |
| IBC Airways | Miami, Providenciales Seasonal: St. Thomas, West Palm Beach |
2005
In this year, the airport operated up to eight flights a day to the main destinations for people in Santiago, New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, which was a record for flights from the Dominican Republic to New York. In this route, American Airlines carried more than 450,000 passengers, making it the major airline operating in Santiago's airport that year. The airport handled up to 600,000 passengers this year.[6]
2006
IIn this year the airport impossed the highest score of passengers handled, with more than 970,000 users through its Terminals. The airport's operator said that every year this airport surpasses the expectations of arrivals and departures of aircraft and passenger movement before every beginning of year operations.
2007
In this year the airport reported a decrease in passenger movements of 0.02%.
2008
In 2008 the airport suffered a reduction in regular operations due to the economic crisis in middle 2008, decreasing a 17.2% of passengers movements. The airport spent almost two years to recover of this crisis. The Air facility received 820,159 passengers from New York, Miami, San Juan, Atlanta, Boston, Panamá, Haiti and Turks and Caicos Islands.
2009
This year three airlines announced intentions to operate in the airport, one of them, Spirit Airlines, whose started operations from Fort Lauderdale in June. By this year the Airport was still planning the runway expansion, which is now a stopped project. Their expectations to handle one million passengers did not become a fact, with a decrease of 0.3% in passengers movements, in relation to the last year, handling 817 thousand passengers.
2010
In this year the airport handled more than 900 thousand passenger, becoming the third busiest airport in the country by passenger too. Numbers increased a 10.2%, making visible the recover to the 2008 economic crisis. Received new carriers operations such as PAWA Dominicana, Aerolineas Mas and VolAir. Established regular scheduled domestic flights operating between Punta Cana, Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo.
The airport expects to handle almost a million passengers by 2011.
| Year (Jan-Dec) | Passengers | % Change |
|---|---|---|
| In 2002 | 271,707 |
|
| In 2003 | 591,402 | 117.7 |
| In 2004 | 680,121 | 15.0 |
| In 2005 | 900,252 | 32.4 |
| In 2006 | 973,541 | 8.1 |
| In 2007 | 950,136 | -0.02 |
| In 2008 | 820,159 | -17.2 |
| In 2009 | 817,518 | -0.3 |
| In 2010 | 901,080 | 10.2 |
| Jan-Nov 2011 | 851,761 |
|
Although no fatal accidents have occurred at the airport, a few incidents have taken place:
This airport also serves as the northern air base for the Dominican Air Force, however, mainly as a support facility. Presently there are no military aircraft stationed at this airport.