El Catey Airport

[Jasper]

Any development going on? I was there at Easter and they were still working. Anybody have a first hand view of what's going on there, if anything? I was hoping that maybe with the election results, we'd have some influx of investment and a speeding-up of this project. I have heard that work is till going on but I am not confident in the reliability of the sources.

[Jasper]

Originally Posted by Jasper

Any development going on? I was there at Easter and they were still working. Anybody have a first hand view of what's going on there, if anything? I was hoping that maybe with the election results, we'd have some influx of investment and a speeding-up of this project. I have heard that work is till going on but I am not confident in the reliability of the sources.

This comes from one of the partner's websites, presumably from 1Q of 2004 since they talk about results from 2003. So, since it's a publicly traded company as far as I know, it would not be in their best interest to lie to shareholders (and you don't need to tell me that that hasn't happened b4):

Dominican Republic Airports
Dominican Republic


YVRAS is the airport operator of the consortium that was awarded the concession to develop and operate four airports in Dominican Republic for 20 years. During 2003, these airports handled a total of approximately 3.8 million passengers. In 2001 the concession contract was extended to 25 years and it includes two more airports: Catey and La Isabela.

Capital investment of over US$400 million will be dedicated by YVRAS and its consortium partners to upgrading and modernizing the airports.

The existing terminal of Dominican Republic's main airport, Las Americas International Airport, has been renovated and the expansion area is currently under construction.

[Jasper]

and this talking head from aerodom in an article from a couple of months ago says that the project is on - just delayed to alot of rain in the spring...and no doubt delayed further due to rain of this week. i'd still like to read it from someone who went there and saw first hand:


http://www.listin.com.do/antes/marzo...blica/rep6.htm

[rdost]

Can anyone tell me where exactly this airport is located? As its still under construction, I assume that there is no air traffic at all coming in.

I had also heard that there may be problems with the ground being too soft to handle the larger planes. Is this true and did they find a solution for it?

[Dolores]

Catey is located midway between Nagua and Sanchez on the northeastern coast. The idea is to serve both those living in San Francisco de Macoris, Nagua and Playa Grande-Cabrera tourism developments, as well as those in the Samana area.

The airport with the ground being too soft to handle the larger planes is the Arroyo Barril in Samana. To the best of my knowledge, this airport only occassionally serves small planes. There is no regular service into this airport. The Arroyo Barril airport is under Aerodom management.

[las olas]

El Catey Airport is nothing more than a pile of rocks that have been moved around several times. I very highly doubt there ever will be an airport at this site. How in the world would any airline fill a wide body jet with passengers on a regular basis coming to the Samana area? It is impossible.

American Eagle flew into La Romana for years before any airline ever considered wide bodies. In this day and age who would ever commit to flying to Nagua? I mean, really?

Samana has an airport, brand new and perfectly usable. American Eagle could fly in with plenty of runway to spare and the planes could be filled. This is feasible.

El Catey is just a politician's pipe dream with hopes of lining someone's pockets with $$$. In my opinion it will be discarded by the incoming administration as one more bad decision on Mejia's part.

[Narcosis]

Originally Posted by las olas

American Eagle flew into La Romana for years before any airline ever considered wide bodies. In this day and age who would ever commit to flying to Nagua? I mean, really?

The flights you are refering to were to a private airstrip in Casa de Campo, nothing to do with the new La Romana airport which can handle wide-body airplanes.

[santobonao]

Originally Posted by las olas

El Catey Airport is nothing more than a pile of rocks that have been moved around several times. I very highly doubt there ever will be an airport at this site. How in the world would any airline fill a wide body jet with passengers on a regular basis coming to the Samana area? It is impossible.

American Eagle flew into La Romana for years before any airline ever considered wide bodies. In this day and age who would ever commit to flying to Nagua? I mean, really?

Samana has an airport, brand new and perfectly usable. American Eagle could fly in with plenty of runway to spare and the planes could be filled. This is feasible.

El Catey is just a politician's pipe dream with hopes of lining someone's pockets with $$$. In my opinion it will be discarded by the incoming administration as one more bad decision on Mejia's part.

I am agree with you, las olas. it's a waste of money doing so many airport for nothing just for tourism. we got more than 7 international airports for dominican and tourism.

[Jasper]

las olas you're wrong but time will time. i learned that the termination is now awaiting the stalled imf money. the idb guarantee to aerodom is on hold until the imf money goes through. nothing much will happen until fernandez comes in. it's private money and has nothing to do with any politicians. we'll see what develops over the next 6 months. long-term tourisim in the samana peninusula could very easily support an airport that could handle wide-body aircraft and the couple of hundred thousand tourists annually. i am not talking about nagua. i read an international report recently that suggested that tourism in dr is expected to grow from 2 million to 6 million over the next decade. if it happens, where is the tourism going to go? obviously new areas need to be developed. and the government needs revenue to pay off the heavy debt burden. tourism will be the key component of getting out of the hippo mess.

[rdost]

Originally Posted by Jasper

las olas you're wrong but time will time. i learned that the termination is now awaiting the stalled imf money. the idb guarantee to aerodom is on hold until the imf money goes through. nothing much will happen until fernandez comes in. it's private money and has nothing to do with any politicians. we'll see what develops over the next 6 months. long-term tourisim in the samana peninusula could very easily support an airport that could handle wide-body aircraft and the couple of hundred thousand tourists annually. i am not talking about nagua. i read an international report recently that suggested that tourism in dr is expected to grow from 2 million to 6 million over the next decade. if it happens, where is the tourism going to go? obviously new areas need to be developed. and the government needs revenue to pay off the heavy debt burden. tourism will be the key component of getting out of the hippo mess.

Jasper, is that private money that you are talking about for El Catey airport from the resorts in this area? How are flights coming in now into Samana? Which airport? I have heard many people talk about Samana as getting more popular. Surely they will need to upgrade or build an airport to support the area. But isn't Nagua a bit far away from Samana for El Catey to be considered for the main international airport (to support international charters) for tourism?

Personally, I would love to buy a little vacation place in this area but would like to know first how far I am going to be from an airport that serves international flights.

Anybody with tips with where I should be concentrating my search? My criteria is a) close to airport b) nice beach c) fairly close to supermarket and civilization d) good investment potential.