Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Cibao International Airport (MDST/STI) is the principal gateway to Santiago de los Caballeros, the Dominican Republic's second city, lying southeast of the urban centre in the fertile Cibao valley. It is a busy international field with a single long runway, full ILS approach and a controlled tower environment, making it a straightforward but professionally-run destination for simulator pilots flying airliner or general aviation traffic into the northern Dominican Republic.
Cibao International Airport serves Santiago de los Caballeros, the country's second-largest city, and is operated by Aeropuerto Internacional del Cibao S.A. It ranks as the Dominican Republic's third-busiest airport by passenger traffic, handling international services to the United States, the Caribbean and increasingly Europe. For the simulator pilot it offers a single well-equipped instrument runway, an active control tower and a realistic mix of airline and general aviation traffic typical of a mid-sized Caribbean international airport.
The airport sits southeast of Santiago de los Caballeros, in Licey within Santiago Province, in the north-central Cibao valley of the Dominican Republic. It lies under Santiago Approach control, with the tower providing local aerodrome control; the field is a customs airport handling international arrivals and departures.
Cibao has a single physical runway, 11/29, oriented northwest-southeast, measuring 8,549 feet in length with a hard surface. The runway is lit for night operations and is equipped with an ILS on runway 11, supporting instrument approaches in poor weather.
Pilots should expect to work Santiago Approach on 119 MHz, ground movements on 121.9 MHz, and Santiago Tower on 118.3 MHz. The runway 11 ILS provides a precision instrument approach for arrivals from the northwest.
The airport lies roughly 15 kilometres southeast of Santiago's city centre, accessible from the Autopista Duarte (DR-1) highway, and sits near the town of Licey. Pilots approaching visually can use the highway corridor and the built-up mass of Santiago itself as a lead-in toward the field.
Plans for an airport to serve the Cibao region date back to 1969, with the Cibao International Airport Corporation formally established on 29 March 1978 under a group of local sponsors including José Armando Bermúdez, Víctor Espaillat and others, who secured the land for the project. Construction began on 15 February 2000 and the airport was inaugurated on 18 March 2002, opening with two American Eagle flights to San Juan. Within months, Aeromar Líneas Aéreas Dominicanas launched the first direct service to New York JFK, followed by American Airlines, North American Airlines, Continental, JetBlue and Delta Air Lines establishing routes to the northeastern United States. A major terminal expansion completed in 2006 enlarged the customs hall and added a second floor. In April 2008 Cibao became the first airport in the country to abolish fees for private aircraft, a move intended to encourage general aviation and tourism traffic. A further large-scale infrastructure renovation, costed at around 300 million US dollars and designed by Luis Vidal + Architects, began construction in November 2021 with President Luis Abinader in attendance, and is expected to be completed by early 2027.
Cibao remains a significant international gateway, having carried over 2.2 million passengers by 2025 and continuing to grow, with JetBlue as the dominant operator running up to twenty daily flights, alongside American Airlines, Delta, Copa, Air Europa and several regional and cargo carriers. The airport currently has 14 based aircraft. A substantial terminal expansion and infrastructure renovation programme is under way, with a new terminal expected to open in 2026 and the wider works due for completion in early 2027. The field operates as a customs airport handling scheduled international traffic, and prior permission should be sought for general aviation movements.
