The Civil Aviation Board has not made the announcement, but a group of national airlines published today an advertisement congratulating the board for rescinding the contract with the International Civil Aviation Organization. The government of Leonel Fernandez had funneled around US$11 million in payments to the organization and personnel contracted by the CAB with the objective of organizing local structures so that Dominican airlines could fly to US territory. The US Federal Aviation Agency has banned the DR from flying to the US for safety reasons. The local airlines had expected the new authorities would rescind the contract, but were surprised when the new board members chose to continue the project that has been linked to major corruption in government. The national airlines, Air Santo Domingo, SAP, Caribair, Air Century, Aerodomca, Trans Caribbean Airways publicly expressed their solidarity to the recommendation that the cooperation and support of the US FAA be sought to effectively resolve the problem. A US company had guaranteed to resolve the problem for about US$500,000 investment, much less than the US$11 million that has been sent with no apparent results.
