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Cibao International Airport

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Template:Airport frame Template:Airport title Template:Airport image Template:Airport infobox Template:Runway title Template:Runway |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" | Helipads |- ! colspan="4" bgcolor="lightgrey"|Cibao Intl Helipads |- | colspan="3" | Direction || H1 |- | colspan="3" | Length m || 16 m |- | colspan="3" | Length ft || 80 ft |- | colspan="3" | Surface || Asphalt |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" | Statistics |- ! colspan="4" bgcolor="lightgrey"|2006 JAN-DEC |- | colspan="3" | Passengers || 987,843 |- | colspan="3" | Traffic Movements (Arrivals and Departures) || 15,746 |- | colspan="3" | Arrivals per Day || 22 to 24 |- | colspan="3" | Departures per Day || 23 to 27 |- | colspan="3" | Based Aircrafts || 11 Template:Airport end frame

Cibao International Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional del Cibao) (IATA: STI, ICAO: MDST) is an international airport located in Santiago de los Caballeros, the Dominican Republic's second largest city. It has a modern terminal with some of the most advanced airport facilities in the country. It serves mainly Dominican nationals residing in the United States, Cuba, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Puerto Rico and Panama.

File:AmericanatgateB5.jpg
An American Airlines plane getting ready for a flight to New York-JFK at gate B5.

History

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), Victor 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.

File:CibaoAirport23.jpg
American Airlines arriving from New York's JFK Airport at Gate B1[citation needed]

The construction of the airport began in 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

On June 15, 2002 North American Airlines made the first direct flight to the mainland United States from JFK Airport in New York City. Later that same day American Airlines and Aeromar Lineas Aereas Dominicanas 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 Airlines, both from New York.

Runway

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.

The Runway 11/29 is one of the two most moderns runways in the country; it is provided of an ILS (Instrument Landing System) for the two directions of the runway. The ILS is used by the airships that land in the airport, to guide itself surely in any condition of the climate.

In the Dominican Republic just Cibao Airport and Las Americas Airpor are provideds by ILS Systems in its runways.

Taxiways

Cibao Airport´s taxiways are composed by Exit E-1 and Exit 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.

Airlines and destinations

International Terminal

The airport's main terminal (international flights) has six gates (B1-B6). 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.

File:Terminaloverview.jpg
Cibao International Airport overview.

American Airlines is the largest carrier at this airport and operates three daily flights. Prior to the summer 2005 it has five daily flights to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, two daily flights to Miami International Airport and two daily to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

JetBlue is another major carrier at the airport, with a daily flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport, however seasonally two more flights are added. JetBlue will begins operations to Boston´s Logan International Airport in December with a Daily flight. This 2nd destination for JetBlue, makes it a very important competence to the Cibao Airport´s mayor Carrier, American Airlines. JetBlue also has indicated interest in flying to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, but no concrete plans have been made as of yet.

File:JetBlueA320inSTI.jpg
Airbus A320 of JetBlue Airways at gate B4 seen from an Airbus A300 of American Airlines.

Continental Airlines operates flights between Santiago and Newark Liberty International Airport. This airline has brought to Santiago its enormous Boeing 767-400 and its Boeing 777-200 as an answer to the enormous amounts of customer demand in the New York routes. New York is the main destination from this airport, so much so that there are nine daily flights to the airports of the tri-state area.

Delta Air Lines operates daily flights between Santiago and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport utilizing a Boeing 757-200. In December 2006 Delta commenced service from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, however service was terminated shortly afterwards. The airline instead decided to concentrate on flights between Puerto Plata and Atlanta pushing service to Santiago until sometime again after the near future.


Copa Airlines is an airline who flies to Panama City from this Airport since July 15, 2006, with five weekly flights between those cities utillizing an Embraer ERJ-190. Copa is the most comfortable airline in Cibao Intl, with very good services it is one of the most prefered airlines in this Airport. Santiago de los Caballeros is the second city served by Copa in the Dominican Republic. Copa also serves Santo Domingo and since July 15 2007 it serves Punta Cana too.


Those five Airlines in its order are the most regulars Carriers in Cibao Airport.

International destinations

Domestic Terminal

The airport's domestic terminal has four gates, all without boarding bridges, and it's located next to the international terminal. It is used for domestic flights and charter flights.

Caribair is the mayor domestic carrier, flying to all airports throughout the country, offering both charter and scheduled commercial flights. Caribair also has international flights from this terminal to destinations such as Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haitien and Santiago de Cuba.

Pan Am World Airways Dominicana will reopen a Hub in Cibao Intl to fly to Port au Prince, Aguadilla and San Juan from the International Terminal. In this Terminal Pan Am will fly to/from Santo Domingo with Regulars operations and to Punta Cana with Charter operations.

Domestic destinations

Private carriers

  • Private Wings (Tererboro (New Jersey), Hartford (Connecticut), Wilmington (Delaware), Richmond (Virginia), Baltimore (Maryland), Houston-Hobby (Texas), San Pedro Sula(Honduras))
  • Agape Flights (Sarasota, Cap Haitien, Exuma, Santo Domingo, Providenciales)
  • Air America Inc (San Juan-Isla Grande)
  • National Jets (Fort Lauderdale)
  • Infra Limited SE (San Juan)
  • Blue Sky Aviation Group Inc (Varadero, St. Lucia)
  • MaxFly Aviation Inc (Santo Domingo, Providenciales)

Cargo terminal

The airport has a cargo terminal with four gates for cargo carriers such as Amerijet, Cargo Logistic. These cargo carriers have regular flights from Santiago to the United States and other Caribbean islands including Saint Martin and The Bahamas.

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. It has regular weekly direct flights to Miami and Santo Domingo and to others destinations only on Sunday.

Cargo carriers

Flights

File:MDSTairport.jpg
Cibao Airport Main Terminal. American Airlines Airbus A300 taking off behind it.
File:COB777.jpg
Continental Boeing 777-200 at exit E-2 leaving the main terminal for a flight to Newark.

In its' first year of operation (2002) the airport had five to six daily flights, (presently it has from 17 to 25 daily flights) to the USA, 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.

In 2005 the airport received an Antonov AN-124 from Spain for military activity along the border with Haiti. It remained in Santiago for two days before returning to Spain.

In 2006, Air Europa, Dominican investors and the Government, joined a total of $10 million dollars like capital to form a national flag carrier which the country currently lacks. In April 2007 Air Dominicana was born and the new carrier is expected to commence service by early 2008. The president of this newly formed company will be Juan Jose Hidalgo, current president of Globalia and Air Europa.

The main hub of this airline will be Punta Cana International Airport. Las Américas International Airport, in Santo Domingo, and Cibao International Airport in Santiago will both become secondary hubs.

File:DeltaB757inauguralflight.jpg
Delta Airlines Boeing 757-200 as DL307 arriving in Santiago after its' maiden flight from New York's Kennedy Airport

Another future airline, tentatively named Sol Dominicana Airlines, will be based both at Cibao International Airport and La Romana International Airport. It would commence flights with two types of airplanes, mainly five BAE-146 and two Boeing 767-200. The airline is estimated to begin operations in July 2007, with flights from La Romana to Brazil.[citation needed]

Flights to Europe

Investors have proposed and considered the possibilities of commencing direct flights between Santiago and Europe, However, presently there is no idea on the possibility of flights between this airport and Europe.

Iberia Airlines, Spain's flag carrier, intends to begin direct flights to the airport sometime before the end of 2007. Direct service to Madrid using an Airbus A340-300 will begin once the airline receives approval from both the Spanish and Dominican governments.

Air Europa also is interested in this route, but this one says that their aircraft, the Airbus A330-300 require a longer runway than is available at the airport. Their plans entailed a weekly flight in December 2007. In 2005 Air Europa conducted a field compatibility test flight using a 767-300 under charter. According to Air Europa the tests were successful and revealed no inherent compatibility issues with the field.


Tentative Destinations

Actually JetBlue Airways will opens this route in December 12 with a daily flight.

Spirit Airlines is interested in this route but it isn´t confirmed yet. Also JetBlue Airways is interested too. Most of ´´Santiagueros´´ like to travel to non Florida cities, this is the reazon because Santiago only have 2 daily flights to Miami.

If this route is approved and confirmed, it will be the firts Santiago-Europe Route.

  • Aeropostal is very interested in the CCS-STI-CCS route (Caracas), it is thinking to begins operations by ending 2007.
  • The new Dominican airline Sol Airlines is interested to become Santiago´s Airport as a Hub for its operations. Its principal Hub is La Romana´s Airport.

This airline wants to begins operations from Santiago to New York, Toronto and Mexico.

Military

This airport also serves as the northern air base for the national air force, however, mainly as a support facility. Presently there are no military aircraft stationed at the airport.

File:AA A300.jpg
Airbus A300 American Airlines as flight AA1774 to New York.

Incidents

Although no fatal accidents have occurred at the airport, however a few incidents have taken place:

  • December 20, 2003, Continental Airlines flight 850 to Newark was departing at its scheduled departure time, 8:30am, and just a few minutes before take-off the crew reported a problem with the aircraft's air-conditioning system. The aircraft had to return from the Runway 11 to the main Terminal for reparation of the system. This flight departed 2 hours after scheduled departure, at 10:50am.
  • October 31, 2005, American Airlines flight 1774 bound for New York encountered engine problem 45 minutes after takeoff. The flight returned to the airport after the crew smelled smoke in the main cabin and many heard noise emitting from the engines. There were no injuries.
  • September 2006, American Airlines flight 2054 was scheduled to depart at 4:11pm to New York, but a strong winds caused an object to the crash into the cockpit window causing it to shatter. The airline postponed the flight until 7:30am the following day.

See also

Other airports in Dominican Republic

Destinations map

File:DestinetionsMDST.jpg
Cibao International Airport Destinations map in 2006.
File:DestinetionsMDST2007.jpg
Cibao Intl Airport Destinations map in 2007.


  • Note how many destinations where added in 2007.





Rail system

A light metro rail system has been proposed to link the airport and the city of Santiago. This rail service will benefit residents and visitors due to the economic impact it will have in reducing the transportation costs between the airport and the city. The construction of this major project is scheduled to begin in October 2007, and it will commence service by 2009.

Previous routes

Gallery

File:Deltainrunway11.jpg
Delta Airlines at Runway 11 waiting for takeoff permission for a flight to New York.
File:AmericanB738.jpg
American Airlines ready for departure to Miami at gate B6.
File:CibaoAirportx2003.jpg
You could see two American Airlines, a Continental Airlines and an Aeromar Lineas Aereas Dominicanas. This picture was taked in 2003.
File:2American.jpg
American Airlines at gates B6 and B5 to Miami and New York. Flights AA738 and AA1774.
File:COB762.jpg
Continental Airlines arriving from Newark EWR as CO736 operated by a Boeing 767-200.
File:Continental B757-300 at STI.jpg
Continental Airlines´ Boeing 757-300 at gate B5 getting ready for its flight back to Newark Liberty Intl as CO737.

External links

References

  • Continental Airlines B737-800 landing in Cibao Intl Youtube Videos
  • American Airlines departing from direction 29/11 in Cibao Intl Youtube Videos
  • JetBlue Airways departing from direction 29/11 in Cibao Intl Youtube Videos
  • Continental Airlines Arriving in direction 29/11 and American Airlines departing at same direction in Cibao Intl Youtube Videos
  • Delta Airlines Arriving in Cibao Intl Youtube Videos
  • Continental Airlines departing in direction 11/29 at Cibao Intl Youtube Videos
  • American Airlines departing in Cibao Intl seen from the Control Tower Youtube Videos
  • American Eagle departing in Cibao Intl Youyube Videos
  • American Eagle departing to San Juan in Cibao Intl Youtube Videos
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