The director general of the Civil Aviation Board, Carlos Alvarez Guzman, announced the closing of operations of Herrera International Airport in Santo Domingo, scheduled for 5 March. The Fernandez government granted the land where the airport is located to engineering companies in exchange for debt contracted to expand the Duarte Highway. Herrera’s operations would be transferred to the newly-built Aeropuerto Internacional de La Isabela, now named the Joaquin Balaguer Airport in northern Santo Domingo. The terminal was inaugurated last month by President Hipolito Mejia, but operations at the airport are being hindered by the hundreds of birds that the nearby Duquesa garbage dump and La Isabela River ecosystem attract. The United States Federal Aviation Agency has not yet cleared the airport for flights to the United States.