Las Américas International Airport
Facts on SDQ
Since 2002 the airport's full official name has quietly honored a person after all: 'Aeropuerto Internacional Las Américas – José Francisco Peña Gómez,' after the three-time presidential candidate and former Santo Domingo mayor, even though everyday use still just says Las Américas.
Source: Wikipedia
"Las Américas" wasn't the airport's first name: opened in 1959 under Decree 5311 as "Aeropuerto Internacional de Punta Caucedo," it was renamed within ten days to "Aeropuerto Internacional General Trujillo" in honor of dictator Rafael Trujillo, then reverted to the Punta Caucedo name on November 25, 1961 after his assassination, before Joaquín Balaguer's government settled on "Aeropuerto Internacional Las Américas" in 1969 under Law 389 of December 18, 1968.
Source: Wikipedia (Spanish)
Las Américas opened in 1959 as the airport of Ciudad Trujillo — the Dominican capital's name under dictator Rafael Trujillo — and only came to serve a city called 'Santo Domingo' once it reverted to that name after his fall.
Source: Wikipedia
Before Las Américas took its current name, the capital's airport was known as General Andrews Airport; by the mid-1950s it hosted Pan Am DC-6s and Delta Convair 340s on routes chaining Ciudad Trujillo to San Juan, Port-au-Prince, Havana and the southern United States.
Source: Wikipedia
Las Américas' single runway, at 3,355 meters the largest in the Dominican Republic, has hosted an Antonov An-225 — the world's largest cargo aircraft — which used it to fly relief supplies in after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Source: Wikipedia
Las Américas is the busiest cargo hub in the Caribbean and Central America, moving 355 million pounds of freight in 2019, and remains the Dominican Republic's second-busiest passenger airport, handling 5.49 million passengers in 2023, after Punta Cana.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport sits in Punta Caucedo near Boca Chica, roughly 20 kilometers east of downtown Santo Domingo, reached via an expressway that crosses the Ozama River on a suspension bridge into the capital's elevated freeway and tunnel system.
Source: Wikipedia
A new terminal expansion broke ground in June 2025 at a cost of $250 million, with completion expected by the end of 2028; today JetBlue is the airport's largest carrier, with 68 to 84 flights a day passing through.
Source: Wikipedia
Even before the jet age, Ciudad Trujillo's airport hosted transcontinental service: in 1953, Chicago and Southern Air Lines flew a weekly Lockheed Constellation on a chain linking Memphis, New Orleans, Port-au-Prince, the Dominican capital and San Juan.
Source: Wikipedia