The official spoke about the issue during his presentation at the third Puerto Plata Business Forum 2025
Puerto Plata.- The general director of the Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation, Idac, Igor Rodríguez Durán, highlighted in this tourist city, the impact generated on the Dominican economy, the development of civil aviation and the Open Skies agreement signed between the Dominican Republic and the United States, during his presentation at the third Puerto Plata Business Forum 2025.
During the event coordinated by the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Production of Puerto Plata, Mileyka Brugal, Igor Rodríguez presented concrete data on the impact generated by aeronautical activity on the country’s economy, during the year 2024 and in the first two months of 2025, 239 thousand 470 entry and exit operations were registered through the country’s international airport terminals.
He also indicated that the growth of tourism, trade and connectivity in the Dominican Republic go hand in hand, for example, with the Open Skies agreement and the contributions of the civil aviation industry to the Dominican economy, since the aforementioned agreement represents a policy of liberalization of air transport that promotes competition, it allows the expansion of routes and facilitates access to international markets.
“For the Dominican Republic, a country whose economy is significantly dependent on tourism and foreign investment, these types of agreements can be transformative. They allow us to attract a greater flow of visitors, diversify source markets and generate a positive impact in strategic sectors such as hospitality, commerce and services,” said the head of Idac.
The official added that through this dynamic flow in Dominican airspace, 97.7 percent of the more than 22 million passengers that the country received in 2024 and January and February of this year were mobilized, resulting in 11 million 192 visitors.
The impact of aeronautical activity on the national economy is palpable and, according to Rodríguez, these 239,470 operations resulted in an income received in the Dominican economy directly and indirectly of more than 356 million dollars, only to the aeronautical sector, without counting the income reported by the Central Bank of the Tourism sector.
“From pilots, crew and airport staff to maintenance and logistics services, the civil aviation industry creates thousands of well-paid and specialized jobs, both in the regulatory public sector and in the private sector.”
Likewise, he took the opportunity to highlight that, in this sense, the Idac, through its Higher Academy of Aeronautical Sciences, Asca, promotes the training of hundreds of young people, professionals who each year are successfully inserted in the Civil Aviation sector.
He added that for the month of April in Puerto Plata they will be inaugurating the installation of a modern Doppler Radar on the Isabel de Torres mountain, which will allow to have a greater scope in meteorological issues.
In addition, by May they will install a new and modern communications system for the control tower, and at the beginning of next year they will be replacing the Air Navigation Radar that has more than 35 years of service with a modern primary and secondary radar of the latest generation. The estimated investment in this equipment will exceed eight hundred million pesos.
Finally, he said that the Open Skies agreement is beginning to bear fruit in our country with the price of air tickets, recently the Dominican company Arajet announced its new routes to New Jersey, Miami and Puerto Rico, flight sales were opened and in less than 24 hours more than 1,500 tickets had been sold at a cost of less than 300 dollars.
Audience participating in the presentation of the general director of Idac, Igor Rodríguez, during the Third Puerto Plata Business Forum 2025.