Douglas Charles Airport remains fully operational says DASPA CEO

Chief Executive Officer of the Dominica Air and Sea Port Authority (DASP), Benoit Bardouille, has revealed that the Douglas Charles Airport has suffered no damages due to the effects of Tropical Storm Harvey.

He said the airport remains fully operational although two Seaborne Airline flights from San Juan were cancelled because of the storm.

Dominica remains on the list of Tropical Storm Watch as Harvey lingers in the Lesser Antilles. The centre of Harvey is 165 miles south of Dominica and feeder bands from Harvey are producing pockets of moderate to heavy showers, isolated thunderstorms and gusty winds.

“The information that we have, we have two Seaborne flights that were affected because of the weather situation,” Bardouille said on Kairi FM news. “I must say, at this time, the airport has not been closed at all for the morning but the weather system is affecting not only Dominica in terms of the rain that we have. Seaborne coming out of San Juan has cancelled two flights.”

He noted that a LIAT flight from Dominica to Barbados, however, had to go to Antigua because it could not arrive in Barbados.

“As we speak, the airport is still open, and functioning normally,” he said adding that weather conditions have affected flights either going onto areas south or coming from some areas in the north.

With regard to the ferry coming into Dominica, Bardouille said that the Ferry Terminal is operational except for one boat that could not reach its destination in St. Lucia and therefore only made it to Martinique.

“They had indicated earlier that they were going to proceed as far as Martinique and not to St. Lucia, they have advised those people accordingly and so far, the ferry has come in for the morning and left, and we are expecting another ferry. So far the operations at the Ferry Terminal appears to be normal,” he remarked.