SANTO DOMINGO. -The Civil Aviation Board (JAC) reported that during the first quarter of 2023, Dominican airport terminals transported 4.6 million passengers, thus leading the list of the commercial aviation industry in Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of international passenger traffic.
The JAC states in a press release that the Dominican territory continues to stand out in the commercial aviation market in 2023, topping the list of countries with the highest number of passengers transported by air in Latin America, according to a report by the Latin American Air Transport Association (ALTA).
The report prepared and presented by ALTA highlights that the country reached 111% of passenger traffic compared to 2019, also highlighting other countries that stood out in growth during the same period such as Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
In the study, the Dominican Republic is in seventh place with 4.6 million passengers transported, Mexico with 29 million, Brazil with 27.4 million, Colombia 11.5 million, Argentina 6.9 million, Chile 6.4 million and Peru 5.3 million.
Marte Piantini, president of the JAC, reminded the members of the plenary that " the Dominican Republic is the territory with the best air connectivity in the Caribbean and that efforts continue in conjunction with the private sector and other government institutions that are part of the sector to turn the country into a hub that connects the Caribbean region with the rest of the world."
The official informed the members of the plenary that since 2022 the Dominican Republic has been among the top countries in the region as one of the most competitive in air transport, according to the Air Transport Competitiveness Index.
He also reported that the Dominican Republic was the country in Latin America and the Caribbean that showed the greatest growth in passenger traffic during 2022.
More connections
During the tenth ordinary session, the members of the plenary were informed of the request for a special permit from the national air operator RED AIR to carry out 1,323 flights on the following routes:
- La Romana/Miami/Camagüey/Miami/La Romana; La Romana/Miami/Holguín/Miami/La Romana; La Romana/Miami/Havana/Miami/La Romana; La Romana/Miami/Managua/Miami/La Romana; La Romana/Miami/Santa Clara/Miami/La Romana; La Romana/Miami/Santiago de Cuba/Miami/La Romana; and La Romana/Miami/Varadero/Miami/La Romana.
Operations on these seven routes will take place from July 11, 2023 to January 15, 2024, with a frequency of one daily flight from Monday to Sunday on each route.
Likewise, the members of the plenary were informed of the request from the foreign air operator RUTACA to operate 26 flights under a special permit on the Maturín, Venezuela/Santo Domingo/Maturín, Venezuela route, from June 10, 2023 to September 6, 2023, with a frequency of two weekly flights, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The JAC also learned of the application from Iberia and Finnair to fly the Madrid/Santo Domingo route, under the Code Share modality, in which Iberia will be the effective operator and Finnair, the market operator.
World 2 FLY will operate 5 flights on the route:
- Madrid/Santiago/Santo Domingo/Madrid, from June 21, 2023 to July 19, 2023, with a frequency of one flight per week, on Wednesdays.
It is worth mentioning that these operations would be carried out during the summer season of this year.
During the review of applications at the tenth session of the JAC, the president of the organization approved the request for amendment to the Economic Authorization Certificate (CAE) of the national operator Arajet to include the routes: Santo Domingo /Aruba /Curazao and Santo Domingo /Quito /Guayaquil.
