Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Gregorio Luperón International Airport (MDPP) serves Puerto Plata and Sosúa on the Dominican Republic's north coast, offering a single long paved runway capable of handling wide-body jets. For the visiting VFR or IFR pilot it is a busy, tower-controlled international field set against the backdrop of the island's Atlantic beach resorts, with a history stretching back to 1979 and a notable place in aviation history through the 1996 Birgenair accident.
Gregorio Luperón International Airport, also known as Puerto Plata Airport, lies near Sosúa in Puerto Plata Province on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. It is operated by Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI S.A. (Aerodom) and is one of the busiest airports in the country, handling a substantial mix of scheduled passenger and cargo traffic drawn by the region's tourist beaches. For a simulator pilot it offers a straightforward but active international arrival, with a single very long runway, full tower and approach control, and the added interest of its aviation history.
The airport sits on the Dominican Republic's north coast at Sosúa, in Puerto Plata Province, and is served by its own approach and tower control (Puerto Plata APP and Puerto Plata TWR), indicating controlled airspace around the field appropriate to an international airport handling wide-body traffic.
The field has a single physical runway, 08/26, some 10,101 feet in length with a hard (asphalt) surface and runway lighting on both directions. There is no ILS installed. Field elevation is 16 feet above mean sea level.
Pilots should expect to work Puerto Plata APP on 119 MHz for approach and departure, Puerto Plata TWR on 118 MHz for the runway environment, and ground movements on 121.9 MHz.
The airport opened in 1979 with the specific purpose of boosting tourism in the northern region of the Dominican Republic, and was built with a runway long and strong enough to accept wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and, later, the Airbus A340 and A350. It is named after General Gregorio Luperón, a Dominican military and state leader. The field is remembered in aviation history as the departure point of Birgenair Flight 301 on 6 February 1996, a Boeing 757-200 bound for Frankfurt that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean some 26 kilometres offshore shortly after take-off, killing all 176 passengers and 13 crew after a faulty airspeed indicator confused the flight crew.
Gregorio Luperón International remains a significant gateway to the Dominican Republic's north coast, handling scheduled international airline traffic from carriers including American Airlines, Air Canada, Air Transat, JetBlue, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Condor, Edelweiss Air, Copa Airlines and WestJet, alongside cargo operators such as Amerijet and DHL Aviation. The terminal has undergone renovation to support simultaneous handling of multiple wide-body aircraft. American Airlines is described as the primary international operator at the field.