Gol senior strategic advisor Mauricio Emboada Moreira, and company executives Carlos Sergio de Santanna Cesar, Claudia Karpat and Christiane Atallah Marques met with the local Civil Aviation board at the Dominican Aviation Institute (IDAC) to move forward on negotiations aimed at using Dominican airports as a hub for connecting flights from Brazil and on to other South American countries and the Caribbean, as well as to points in the United States and Canada. Boston in the United States, Montreal in Canada, and Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados were mentioned as some of the first connecting points. In the DR, the Gol representatives were accompanied by lawyers Vitelio and Santiago Mejia Ortiz of the law firm Mejia Armenteros & Abreu.
Alejandro Herrera, director of the Civil Aviation Board, made the announcement last week about Gol?s interest in expanding flights into the US, Canada and the Caribbean through Dominican airports. Herrera said the request would be studied by the IDAC.
Alejandro Herrera said that one of the main roles of the IDAC is to promote additional air service to the DR and sees Gol?s desire to set up operations here as a positive.
Gol proposes to begin direct flights to the DR from Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Manaus, Brazil, using modern 737 jets. Gol has a fleet of more than 120 Boeing jets, as reported by IDAC.
IDAC was represented by General Santiago Rosa Martinez, Jose Valdez Martinez, Franklin Reyes Rosso, among others.
Gol Lineas Aereas Inteligentes already flies to Punta Cana from where it flies to Caracas, Venezuela and to the Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Florianopolis and Natal. Since April 2010, the airline has operated regular low-cost flights to Punta Cana on 737-800 jets.