Santo Domingo.– The Las Américas International Airport Dr. José Francisco Peña Gómez (AILA), the main air terminal in the Dominican Republic, has been at the center of public attention for the last ten months due to a series of incidents that have caused concern among passengers, airlines, and authorities.
The most recent one occurred on July 14, 2026, when users shared videos on social media showing water leaking from the ceiling of one of the terminal’s areas and the partial detachment of a ceiling panel. Although the incident did not cause interruptions to operations and the airport administration has not publicly explained the causes of the leak, the images once again sparked questions about the condition of the facilities.
However, this has not been the only episode that has put AILA under scrutiny. Since September 2025, the terminal has faced blackouts and electrical failures that, although of a different origin, have forced the activation of contingency plans to ensure the continuity of operations.
The most critical case was recorded on September 21, 2025. At 9:18 in the morning, a failure in an internal sectionalizer left the areas designated for passenger processing without power, paralyzing boarding and disembarking processes for more than nine hours.
According to Aerodom, the disruption affected 47 flights, of which 29 were arrivals and 18 were departures. In addition, three aircraft were diverted to other airports and around 5,000 passengers were affected by delays, cancellations, and itinerary changes.
While the control tower and the runway continued to operate using backup systems, the concessionaire resorted to external electric generators to restore service in the terminal.
Three days later, the Airport Commission concluded, preliminarily, that the failure was caused by the collapse of the medium-voltage cell-disconnector assembly at the north terminal and by the unavailability of the backup electrical circuit, known as the “mirror”.
Based on those findings, the agency ordered Aerodom to assume the costs incurred by passengers and airlines, in addition to imposing a five-million-dollar fine.
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The case continued in the following months. In November 2025, the Airport Department reported that the process to execute the sanction was still ongoing in accordance with established administrative procedures, while Aerodom assured that it maintained communication with the authorities and was complying with the corresponding requirements.
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Already in 2026, the airport faced inconveniences related to the power supply again. On February 23, a blackout that affected a large part of the national territory also reached the terminal. On that occasion, the emergency generators allowed essential systems to remain operational, so flight operations did not suffer major setbacks.
Less than three weeks later, in the early hours of March 11, a breakdown in transfer equipment located inside an electrical substation temporarily left the check-in counters, the outbound Migration area, and part of the central arrivals zone without service.
The situation caused delays of between 20 and 30 minutes for three flights bound for Boston, Newark, and Havana, before service was restored approximately 50 minutes later.
While these episodes were occurring, Aerodom continued to develop a modernization program for Las Américas Airport. In 2024, the company announced an investment of over 30 million dollars to renovate the departure and arrival areas, roofs, facades, air conditioning systems, lighting, parking lots, and other terminal facilities.
As part of that process, floors and ceilings were also renovated, a system to collect and reuse rainwater was built, and improvements were carried out in different areas of the airport.
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Added to these investments, in April 2026, was the start of the rehabilitation of the main runway, a project valued at more than 20 million dollars that seeks to extend its useful life by at least 15 years.
The succession of blackouts, electrical failures, and the recent leak show two realities that coexist in the country’s main air terminal: on one hand, an infrastructure that continues to receive investments to improve its capacity and services; on the other, a series of events that have tested its response systems and kept the airport under public scrutiny.
