Where Is Cabo Rojo Airport (CBJ)?

Pedernales province, in context

Pedernales is the Dominican Republic's westernmost province, occupying the southern tip of the peninsula shared with Haiti. It is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south, the Sierra de Bahoruco mountain range to the north, and the Haitian border to the west, with the city of Pedernales as its provincial capital.

The province is sparsely populated compared with the rest of the country and has historically been reached by a single main highway from Barahona, rather than by a dense road network. That relative isolation is precisely why an airport is being discussed for the area: existing overland access is real, functional and scenic, but it is also long.

Cabo Rojo itself sits on the coast within Pedernales province, a short stretch along the shoreline from Pedernales town. It has an existing deep-water port that historically handled bauxite exports, and it is this developed coastal strip, not open countryside, that has been identified for the airport project.

What sits near the Cabo Rojo site

To the south of Cabo Rojo lies Bahía de las Águilas, a protected beach inside Jaragua National Park, generally considered one of the most striking undeveloped beaches in the Caribbean precisely because it has stayed hard to reach.

To the north-east, the coastal highway continues toward Barahona, passing through towns including Paraíso and Enriquillo along the way, and inland from that road lies the Sierra de Bahoruco range with its cloud forest reserve.

Inland and to the north sits the Lago Enriquillo basin, reached via Duvergé, a saline lake system that is the lowest point in the Caribbean and home to crocodile and iguana populations protected within its own national park.

How the site compares with existing regional airports

Two airports already serve the wider south-west region. María Montez International Airport (BRX), near Barahona, is the closer existing airport to Pedernales and has operated limited scheduled and charter service. Las Américas International Airport (SDQ), outside Santo Domingo, is the country's main international gateway and the airport most travellers currently use before continuing overland to the south-west.

CBJ is planned to sit further south-west than either of those airports, closer to the coast and to Bahía de las Águilas than BRX, and considerably closer than SDQ. That relative positioning is confirmed by the province and coastal area named in official references to the project; specific distances between CBJ and either existing airport have not been published in a way we can verify, so we do not state them.

What is fair to say is that CBJ, once operating, is intended to shorten the overland portion of a trip to the south-west compared with flying into SDQ or BRX today — that is the stated purpose of the project, even though the airport itself is not yet built out for passengers.

Questions we get on this

Is Cabo Rojo Airport near Bahía de las Águilas?

Yes, in general terms — Cabo Rojo sits on the coast of Pedernales province close to the entrance of Jaragua National Park, where Bahía de las Águilas is located. We do not publish a specific distance because none has been officially confirmed.

Is CBJ closer to Barahona or to Pedernales town?

CBJ is planned within Pedernales province, at the Cabo Rojo coastal site, which sits south-west of the existing Barahona airport and along the coast from Pedernales town itself.

What is the nearest town to the planned airport?

Pedernales town, the provincial capital, is the nearest significant town to the Cabo Rojo site.