Diario Libre continues with its investigation into Aerodom operations at five national airports. He probe points out that contractually, Aerodom should have invested US$411 million in its first four years of operation, but barely has invested US$120 million in its five years of managing four Dominican airport terminals. The newspaper reports that Aerodom committed to invest US$203 million in a first phase of two years. In a second phase, the next two years, it committed to invest US$208 million.
Newspaper investigations show that the company manages revenues, conservatively speaking, of over RD$60 million per month, based on the airport producing revenues of RD$30 million a year when it was managed by the government back in 2000. The newspaper estimates that the additional US$2.30 duty on incoming and outgoing passengers produces another estimated RD$25 million a month for the company.
Diario Libre complains that the Departamento Aeroportuario has refused to release information on the concessionaire of the Las Americas, Maria Montez, Gregorio Luperon, La Isabela, Arroyo Barril and El Catey (under construction) airports. Also mentioned is that the figures do not take into account the hefty increases that Aerodom has carried out to the rates that the governmental Departamento Aeropuertuario had charged at the time of the privatization in 2000. The newspaper mentions that the contract awarded in 2000 is for 25 years, but so far the company has only invested barely 25% of what it had committed to.
The high cost of private airport operation affects travel to the Dominican Republic. Many times, the airport charges, security charges and taxes account for more than 100% of the cost of the airfare. The high cost of Dominican airports has contributed to the DR losing out on the coveted inter-airline traffic. Airline personnel usually will chose not to visit the DR because of the many non-fare charges.