The Minister of Tourism, david colladohopes that the open skies agreement that the country has been negotiating with USAbecause it would lower the costs of air flights, both for Dominicans residing in the North American giant and for tourists who come to vacation.
“We are being as aggressive as we can, with airlines so that the diaspora can come to their country with much lower costs, but also tourists,” he said after leading the opening ceremony of the international aviation forum Connect New Worldfirst held in Dominican Republic.
He gave as an example that, if an American family of five people who comes to the Dominican Republic the air ticket costs about 1,500 dollars, “we are talking about almost 8,000 or 9,000 dollars in tickets and then paying for the hotel.”
He explained that “it’s different than if the flight to Mexico -whose tourism and air industry competes with the Dominican one- only costs 250 dollars, which would allow the same family to travel cheaper.
“This is why we have to be more competitive,” said Collado, after emphasizing that more capacity is needed in key tourist-emitting destinations in the United States, such as miami and NY.
Collado stressed that air connectivity represents “the number one strategy” of the Tourism Cabinet, to reinforce the leadership of the transport sector in the Dominican Republic, which includes thinking about more affordable air costs for those who arrive in the country.
“It is not possible that a Dominican in economy class, one December, has to pay 1,700 or 1,800 dollars (to come to the country),” he reiterated.
The Minister of Tourism emphasized the work carried out by low-cost airlines, such as arajet and sky high dominicanthat have contributed to improve air connectivity between the DR and the countries of South America, through direct flights at lower prices than what is traditionally established in the market.
“That’s why the big airlines, like Cup, Wingo and Aviancato increase its air routes to and from the Dominican Republic, said the minister.
“Once we define the specific date, we would start with the hope of growing quickly,” he said, explaining that this is part of a plan to grow flights and available seats that the company has carried out in the Dominican Republic, after increasing its services towards Punta Cana and Santo Domingo.
“In the case of Punta Cana, we are more than 40% above the number of seats than in 2019 and in Santo Domingo, more than 25%”, compared to that year, he declared.