The Dominican Republic has had an open skies policy since 2006, and this has made the difference in number of arrivals. The DR has aviation agreements with Canada, Chile, Panama, Cuba, Austria, Mexico, the Benelux Countries, Great Britain, Dubai, Colombia, Brazil, Iceland, Turkey, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Russia and Peru. Most of these agreements benefit foreign airlines, but Luis Rodriguez Ariza, president of the Civil Aviation Board (JAC) told Listin Diario that Dominican airlines could benefit if they had the fleets.
In 2009, 4,462,277 air arrivals came to the DR. This included 3.9 million from the US, followed by Canada with 1.2 million travelers.
“We apply a liberal air policy, with freedom in respect to number of frequencies and rates, allowing the airlines to operate all the flights they request,” he said.