Grupo Punta Cana built the airport, which was designed by architect Oscar Imbert, and inaugurated it in December 1983.

In 2022, more than 8.3 million passengers (arrivals and departures combined) passed through the terminals that year, with almost 50,000 commercial aircraft operations.

[2] In the late 1970s a road was built to connect the area with the capital of La Altagracia Province, Higüey.

They had to pass through Las Américas International Airport in Santo Domingo, then take a short flight in a small plane to Punta Cana.

This meant passengers would exit their plane and be directed onto a road to be picked up to ride to their hotel, which was inconvenient.

After eight full years of arguing with the province, a contract was made to begin construction on the new airport.

The solution to this problem was to build the terminal in such a way that the coastal breezes from the Caribbean Sea would come in and cool down the passengers.

The terminal building was planned to have palm fronds for the roof, and stone from the nearby jungles for the walls.

As a result, this brought an increased demand to bring jet aircraft to Punta Cana, since the airport would have to accommodate more people.

The tarmac was also expanded to accommodate jet aircraft, and the control tower had new radar systems added to it.

In 1987, the first route between Punta Cana and the United States began, with Miami International Airport.

The Dutch wanted a route to Punta Cana, so in January 1995, Martinair began operations from Amsterdam Schiphol.

[citation needed] Over time, more airlines from Europe, Canada, and the US began operations to Punta Cana.

Towards the end of 1998, the airport became highly congested, with severe delays due to restricted space on the apron.

A long taxiway was added to prevent a collision on the runway, and the tarmac was expanded to fit six aircraft.

During this time, Punta Cana was drastically changing, with the addition of new hotels, malls, and infrastructure.

[4] As many old charter carriers from the 1990s began to cease operations to the airport, each new year brought new airlines and destinations.

Several prominent leisure carriers such as Transaero, Pullmantur Air, and Corsairfly started operations with large aircraft such as the Boeing 747.

[11] Plans were underway for a U.S. Customs and Border Protection preclearance station to be opened at the airport by the end of mid 2009;[15] however, this has not yet begun.

[16] According to Frank Rainieri, president of Grupo Puntacana, negotiations have re-opened (as of June 2015) and he anticipates that this airport will be the first in Latin America to offer such preclearance service.

[17] As of December 2020, the preclearance station is still planned, but is waiting to receive authorization from the Dominican Government to begin construction.