Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

is an island nation in the

Windward islands french: Îles du Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Windward Islands. Clockwise: Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean SeaNorth ...

in the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc betwe ...

archipelago in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

. Most people arrive in Dominica via

Douglas–Charles Airport Douglas–Charles Airport , formerly known as Melville Hall Airport, is an airport located on the northeast coast of Dominica, northwest of Marigot. It is about one hour away from the second largest city Portsmouth. It is one of only two airp ...

, where most commercial flights to the island land. Dominica also utilizes sea transport and a roadway network.

Airports

There are two regional, and no international airports on the island. The primary airport, Douglas-Charles Airport (DOM), is on the northeast coast and is about a 45-minute drive from Portsmouth (1 hour from Roseau). The second is

Canefield Airport The Canefield Airport is an airport on the west coast of the island nation of Dominica. It is north of Roseau, the capital. Construction began in early 1979 with British funding, shortly after Dominica's independence. The airport was officially ...

(DCF), about 15 minutes from Roseau on the southwest coast. Airlines which serve the Canefield Airport are

Air Antilles Air Antilles is a French airline based at Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe, France. It is a regional airline operating scheduled and seasonal services in the French Antilles. History The airline began operations in Decembe ...

Winair Winair, an abbreviation of Windward Islands Airways International NV, is a government-owned Dutch airline based in Sint Maarten. Founded in 1961 by Georges Greaux and Hippolyte Ledee, It has a fleet of seven aircraft serving ten destinations, ...

using DHC6-300 Series Twin Otters,

Coastal Air Founded in 1976 by Michael Foster, Coastal Air Transport is a St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands based airline that provides service to several Caribbean destinations including St. Eustatius, Nevis, Dominica, Anguilla and St. Kitts. Coastal Air ...

using

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...

aircraft, Anguilla Air Services, Airawak, VI Airlink, Fly BVI,

SVG Air SVG AIR is an airline company located at the Argyle International Airport, Argyle, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines that operates both scheduled and charter flight services within the Eastern Caribbean islands as far north as Jamaica and as far ...

and many other regional airlines and charters. Douglas-Charles Airport is suitable for limited use of commercial jets because of runway length. Douglas-Charles currently has regular service by

Air Sunshine Air Sunshine is an airline based in the United States and in Puerto Rico. It operates scheduled service to and from San Juan and Vieques, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Anguilla, Dominica, Sint Maarten, Nevis, St. Kitts, Tortola and Virgin Gorda in ...

and

Seaborne Airlines Seaborne Virgin Island Inc, operating as Seaborne Airlines, is a FAR Part 121 airline headquartered in Carolina, Puerto Rico, near the territory's capital of San Juan. It operates a seaplane shuttle service between St. Croix and St. Thomas. O ...

using twin turboprop aircraft like the

ATR ATR may refer to: Medicine * Acute transfusion reaction * Ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3 related, a protein involved in DNA damage repair Science and mathematics * Advanced Test Reactor, nuclear research reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory, ...

Saab 340 The Saab 340 is a Swedish twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed and initially produced by Saab AB and Fairchild Aircraft. It is designed to seat 30-36 passengers and, as of July 2018, there were 240 operational aircraft used by 34 different o ...

, as well as

Conviasa Línea Aérea Conviasa (legally ''Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos'') is a Venezuelan airline with its headquarters on the grounds of Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela, near Carac ...

and

Amerijet Amerijet International Airlines, Inc. is an American cargo airline headquartered in Miami, United States. The airline delivers air freight with its fleet of Boeing 757s and Boeing 767s from its main hub at the Miami International Airport to 48 d ...

, which, using Boeing 727 Freighters, is the only airline with jet service to the republic. Since the passing of tropical storm Erika Amerijet has stopped all flight to the Douglas Charles Airport. A runway extension and service upgrade project began at Douglas-Charles Airport around 2006 and was finished in 2010. In March 2013, airline American Eagle halted flights to the island citing high labour costs. Currently, the only direct flights to Dominica are from other Caribbean islands. Douglas-Charles houses the Dominica Outstation of the

Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority The Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCAA) is a civil aviation authority serving the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The headquarters are in Saint John's, Antigua and Barbuda. The agency serves as the aviation accide ...

Roadways

Dominica has of roadways, of these roadways are paved. Dominica's road network runs primarily along the coastline and along river valleys. Major roads are two-lane highways which connect the capital, Roseau, with Portsmouth (Edward Oliver Leblanc Highway) and the Douglas Charles Airport (Dr. Nicholas Liverpool Highway). It takes about 45 minutes to drive from Portsmouth to Roseau. Private minibuses form the major public transport system. These major roads were recently reconstructed with assistance from the People's Republic of China and the European Union. Due to Tropical Storm Erika, several road surfaces and bridges were damaged by flooding and landslides, including on the newly completed E.O. LeBlanc (Roseau to Portsmouth) and Dr. Nicholas Liverpool Highways (Pont Cassé to Douglas Charles Airport). Colihaut,_Dominica_001

Railway

The only railway known to have operated on the island is a short-lived gauge forestry railway which ran inland from the port of Portsmouth on the northern Leeward coast, 45 km north of Roseau from 1910 until 1913/14.

Waterways

Dominica also provides ports for large cruise ships and transportation of goods into and out of the country. The main ports reside in

Roseau Roseau (Dominican Creole: ''Wozo'') is the capital and largest city of Dominica, with a population of 14,725 as of 2011. It is a small and compact urban settlement, in the Saint George parish and surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, the Roseau Ri ...

, Woodbridge Bay and in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. These are regulated by the Dominica Air & Sea Ports Authority (DASPA).Ports of Dominica
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References

Notes

External links

* http://www.dominica.gov.dm/ - Government of Dominica * https://www.facebook.com/dominicaports/ - Dominica Air and Sea Ports Authority {{DEFAULTSORT:Transport In Dominica