President Joaquín Balaguer officially opened the Barahona International Airport on Saturday, 27 April. The new Maria Montez International Airport is planned to bring an onset of investors to the region, one of the country’s prime ecotourism areas, which also contains some of its most panoramic scenery.
During the opening ceremony the president was accompanied by the vice presidential candidate for the governing party, Maribel Gassó. The Minister of Public Works, Ramón Antonio García Santos, gave the principal speech on the importance of the airport for the social and economic development of the southwest. He also said that its construction cost RD$734 million.
The Minister of Tourism, Frank Jorge Elías, also spoke at the event saying that now the doors to investors in the region are open with promising perspectives.
Representing the private sector, Julio Schiffino, one of the pioneers of tourism development in the area, spoke of the importance of the airport, especially on an island where visitors from Europe, Asia or the Americas must arrive by air.
The airport is named after Maria Montez, a Barahona-born Hollywood actress of the 1940s.