Punta Cana International Airport
Airport codes
IATA airport code: PUJ
ICAO airport code: MDPC
Address
Carretera Aeroporto Punta Cana
Dominican Republic
Phone: +809 959 2376
Email: info@puntacana.com
PUJ Departures today
Discover Punta Cana International Airport departures
Punta Cana Airport is the Dominican Republic’s primary airport in terms of tourists. The airport is close to the beach with several holiday destinations around it. It is a privately owned airport by Grupo Punta Cana and it is located in the east of the Dominican Republic and it was only put into service in 1983. There is a special terminal that is open on many sides, surrounded by palm trees. It is the busiest airport in the country and one of the busiest in the Caribbean. A lot of rapid growth from under 2 million in 2002 to nearly 8 million passengers in 2018. There are many airlines from many countries that fly to Punta Cana Airport. The many Punta Cana departures are to the US, Canada, Europe and other Caribbean places. For this purpose 2 runways and 2 passenger terminals for international traffic are in use.
History Punta Cana Airport
The history to the first Punta Cana departures took place in 1971. There was an airstrip of a few hundred meters to land small planes. A small hotel was built which attracted more and more interest from tourists. There was not yet a direct road from Santo Domingo so they flew via Las Americas to Punta Cana. It soon became clear that a normal airport had to be built. After much wrangling with the government, construction started in 1983. The terminal was open after a few months. A temporary paved runway was built to create an entirely new and long runway at the old location. This one was finished a year later. That same year, the first international flight arrived from Puerto Rico.
The terminal was not fully completed until 1985. This is the current international Terminal A. Flights from different continents increased. There was an international flight from Miami in 1986. The runway has been extended several times to eventually reach 3,100 ft. Because it was getting busier, more thought had to be given to safety. There was no taxiway at all yet. The terminal also had to be expanded considerably to meet the demand. After all, more and more hotels and shopping options were added. In 2004 an extra terminal was added. A few years later a second runway of the same length. A second International terminal (Terminal B) was opened in the year 2014.
Terminal
There are 5 terminals that are divided into the following:
- International Punta Cana flight departures (2)
- Private flights
- Domestic flights
- VIP terminal
Punta Cana airport flight routes
PUJ departures flies to many destinations in Canada and the USA. Toronto-Pearson Airport is most popular destination with airlines offering this route such as Air Canada, Sunwing, WestJet and Air Transat. Together with the other destinations in Canada, there is about 20 percent market share. Another popular Canadian flight route is to Montreal.
Perhaps unexpectedly, Panama City is in second place of most Punta Cana departures operated by Copa Airlines.
Flying from the U.S. often happens to the following places:
From Europe there are many PUJ airport departures from Paris, Charles de Gaulle airport and Frankfurt. Some options if you want to fly to South America::
- Lima Jorge Chavez
- Bogota El Dorado
- Medellin Jose Maria Cordova
- Caracas Simon Bolivar
- Sao Paulo Guarulhos
Passenger statistics
In total, there have been 47,226 Punta Cana departures in 2019. That was just over 7 million passengers year round. In 2018 this was still almost 8 million. The airport is having a hard time due to the pandemic. It is a typical holiday destination. For that reason, many routes have been canceled or significantly reduced. In the year 2002 there were only 2 million passengers. Fortunately, in 2021 there will be an increase in departures and with that also passengers.
Hotels in Punta Cana
- Tortuga Bay Hotel
- The Westin Puntacana
- Four Points by Sheraton
- Puntacana Village