President Luis Abinader during his press conference on Monday, 22 September 2025, said he has instructed Minister of Public Works Eduardo Estrella to investigate the causes of the blackout that impacted around 50 flights that were detoured to other airports, or cancelled on Sunday, 21 September 2025. Las Americas International suffered a nine-hour blackout from 9:18am to around 2pm when power was gradually restored, with power fully back at 6pm in the main terminal. The control tower was not impacted because its backup power kicked in.
The President said the government wants to learn if there was negligence on behalf of the airport concessionaire.
The President explained during the 22 September 2025 press conference that Estrella as Minister of Public Works is the head of the Airport Department Council. The President said that the situation at Las Americas is “unacceptable.”
At the airport backup systems only kicked in to support the operations at the control tower.
Luis Jose Lopez, spokesperson for the airport, reported that 47 flights were impacted. He explained that what the airport knows is that the section switch failed, not allowing the backup power generators to kick in when the power failed. Explaining why it took nine hours to resolve the situation, Lopez said that’s what it took to contract the needed backup power to bypass the problem area.
In responding to a question by Hoy Mismo morning program as to whether the constructions taking place at the airport could have caused the problems, Lopez said this is a possibility they are looking into. He said contractors had installed the electrical systems underground as a prevision for storms.
He said the airport is collaborating with the authorities in the investigation into what caused the outage and seeks to correct the situation so this not occur again.
On Monday, the airlines began to sort out the situation for all the flights and passengers whose flights were impacted on Sunday.
Issues such as who will reimburse the passengers for lost flights have yet to be addressed.
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Hoy Mismo
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La Semanal 22 September 2025
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