President Abinader announces bill to be sent to Congress to eliminate fiscal barriers that impede development of new airlines
President Luis Abinader participated this Saturday in the official start of operations of the Arajet airline with its first flight to San Salvador, El Salvador.
At the event, he announced that in the next few days he will present to the National Congress a bill to eliminate the fiscal barriers that impede the development of new local airlines.
“Fiscal incentives that in reality the State will not stop receiving because there are no local airlines, because it will not stop receiving anything but it will stop encouraging competition and that is the logic of this Government, to eliminate many measures that did not make any sense, for those that do make sense in order to bring competition”, 
said the President.
With its first flight to San Salvador, Arajet will be connecting 22 destinations in 12 countries with low prices and direct flights to and from Santo Domingo. In the next 5 years it expects to transport more than 7 million passengers, generating more than 4,000 direct jobs and close to 40,000 indirect jobs in the region.
President Abinader expressed that he has asked Victor Pacheco, president of Arajet, to bring competition so that the Diaspora can travel with reasonable ticket prices.
He stressed that in order to develop the tourism sector, it is not only necessary to talk about hotels and airports in different regions of the country, among other sectors that have an impact, but also to have the number of seats available so that tourists can arrive from different destinations.
The head of state also said that it is necessary that these tickets have reasonable competition prices.
He indicated that the objective of the Dominican Government is to promote local airlines to create companies and bring jobs.
COE Bulletins
The President urged all the population to keep abreast of all the bulletins issued by the Emergency Operations Center (COE) in view of the possible impact of Hurricane Fiona.
He expressed that all services will be prepared in the country, where so far it is the northeastern part that could have the greatest impact.
“All government institutions are prepared. We ask the population to stay in touch; I repeat to download the COE and Civil Defense applications to know where the shelters are,” urged President Abinader.
Benefit for tourism
For his part, the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, expressed that they are sure that as of today the country will begin to feel the impact that Arajet will have for the benefit of the country’s tourism, since it will be contributing to the growth of the industry, attracting more visitors from destinations with which until today there was no direct connection.
He added that this will help to continue reaching record numbers in tourist arrivals and also diversifying the nationality of visitors with fair rates to connect Santo Domingo with the continent.
Likewise, Víctor Pacheco Méndez, executive president of Arajet, highlighted that the low-cost business model and national airline status will attract more tourists, increase connectivity and offer Dominicans the opportunity to travel at lower fares, aboard new aircraft with the highest safety standards, with our distinctive and warm Dominican customer service.
“Our mission is to advance Dominican aviation by providing low fares, superior service and connecting Santo Domingo to major cities in the Americas with a fleet of state-of-the-art aircraft,” said Pacheco Mendez.
Arajet will build a solid route network of 22 destinations in 12 countries in the coming months, proudly flying the Dominican flag and providing customer-oriented service throughout the continent.
Similarly, Landon Loomis, VP Latin America, noted that the 737 MAX family of aircraft is a perfect fit for Arajet’s network with the 737-8 enabling profitable new routes and the 737-8-200 providing unmatched efficiency.
“The flexibility of the 737 MAX ensures that Arajet can meet its goal of democratizing the skies throughout the Caribbean and beyond with safe, sustainable and reliable service,” he expounded.
During September, Arajet will continue to launch operations to Saint Marteen in the Caribbean, Lima in Peru, Mexico City, Monterrey and Cancun in Mexico and Guatemala City in Guatemala. Starting in October, Arajet will add Curacao, San Jose in Costa Rica, Quito and Guayaquil in Ecuador, Medellin and Bogota in Colombia, as well as destinations in North America. Arajet expects the Dominican Republic and the United States to reach an open skies agreement to begin connecting North America and the Caribbean with point-to-point flights.
Arajet enters the market with a solid business model, strategically backed by major global investment firms Bain Capital and Griffin, to consolidate its position as a world-class airline for the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean.
President Abinader was accompanied by the general director of Customs, Eduardo Sanz Lovatón; the president of the Civil Aviation Board, José Marte Piantini; the interim general director of the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute (IDAC), Héctor Porcella, and the executive director of the Airport Department, Víctor Pichardo.
Also, the general director of Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI (AERODOM), Mónika Infante; the ambassador of the Dominican Republic in El Salvador, Oscar Toledo; the director of Politur, brigadier general Minoru Matsunaga, and the director of CESAC, pilot colonel Floreal Suárez Martínez.
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