Héctor Porcella, general director of the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute (IDAC), affirmed that “Dominican airlines are able to operate in the United States at more economical rates”.
He explained that the open skies agreement with the United States will not only promote better air connectivity of the country with its main commercial and tourist ally, but will also attract new investments with an impact on exports and the generation of quality jobs.
“As President Luis Abinader has pointed out, the agreement will allow us to expand flight options for Dominican airlines and include more direct routes between the two countries, especially in U.S. cities with a significant population of Dominicans, who must fly with stopovers in New York or Miami,” he said.
“The U.S. airlines have always had the facility to exploit Dominican airspace for tourism and commercial purposes, but the same does not happen with the national flag airlines, in a relationship of inequity that will be overcome with the projected agreement,” he said.
He said that the open skies policy is promoted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), with the interest of promoting connectivity between their territories, which has repercussions on the growth of their economies, the creation of direct and indirect jobs, foreign capital investment, increase of foreign exchange, consumption of domestic products and other contributions derived from this activity.
“We recently accompanied the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, during a meeting with the Secretary of Transportation of the United States, Peter Buttigieg, and in the signing of the memorandum of consultation of the open skies agreement with the Undersecretary of the Department of State, José Fernández, in the city of Washington, starting the work to implement this agreement,” said the head of the IDAC.
Porcella recalled that the United States is the main source of tourists to the Dominican Republic, accounting for approximately half of the total number of visitors the country receives annually, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of locals who travel or reside in different North American cities.
Source: Arecoa.com
