Just days after the tragic anniversary of the ill-fated flight AA-587, Eduardo Del Pozo, the general manager of American Airlines for the Dominican Republic, announced that American Airlines will take the one millionth passenger from Santo Domingo to New York City this afternoon. This is the first time in 30 years of operations in the Dominican Republic that American has reached this number within a calendar year, and there is still the Christmas rush to be handled. American currently offer 30 flights a day from different airports in the DR, with Santiago becoming a very important center with five flights a day of wide cabin service, a total of 1,300 seats available to New York. Currently American has twelve service centers located around the country as well as the website www.aa.com which functions in English and Spanish, because so many people still prefer to talk to an agent. American is studying the possibility of opening even more service centers. Looking forward to the Christmas rush and the onslaught of heavily laden passengers, Del Pozo said that fortunately the service to Puerto Plata, Santiago and Santo Domingo is provided by wide-cabin equipment, which provides sufficient capacity for the excess baggage. Being more realistic, the American director of operations Rafael Sanchez told reporters that American was coordinating with airport authorities for the necessary facilities to bring baggage during the late night on alternative flights so that passengers could retrieve their bags in the mornings within 24 hours of arrival.