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Dominica buys land for international airport

The Republic of Dominica has announced the acquisition of 166ha of land for the construction of its first international airport.

The project is being developed by a company set up for the purpose, and will be financed from the island’s own funds.

Roosevelt Skerrit, Dominica’s prime minister, said: "The International Airport Development Company will have a shelf life for the duration of the construction of the airport. It will have a board comprising of 16 members that would cover a wide section of the society so that we have broad-based participation and involvement in the process."

When the project was announced in August 2020, Skerrit said: "We have placed the international airport as priority number one for the government. I am redirecting a lot of state resources in terms of human resources, engineers and surveyors, to the project."

Dominica reopened its borders to international visitors on 7 August, and has been relatively unaffected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Image: Douglas-Charles, completed in 1961, is presently Dominica’s main airport (Russell Watkins/DFID/CC BY 2.0)

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