A trickle of tourists, but thousands of Dominicans and foreign residents have traveled to and from the Dominican Republic since airports reopened on 1 July 2020.
As reported, the application of safety protocols is enhanced daily at the airports as more and more travelers come and leave by air.
Despite the fear of flying, more and more people are taking flights to and from the Dominican Republic. Aerodom reports 44,000 travelers entered or departed via Las Americas International Airport in the first 12 days after the opening. Luis Lopez, spokesperson for Aerodom, says total traffic for Las Americas (SDQ), Gregorio Luperon International in Puerto Plata (POP) and La Isabela in northern Santo Domingo was 47,186 travelers. This is about 25% of normal traffic for this time of the year in 2019. On Tuesday, 14 July 2020, flights arrived from New York, Miami, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as San Juan, Puerto Rico, Madrid (Iberia and Air Europa), Paris (Air France) and Panama (Copa).
Jet Blue continues to be the airline carrying out the most flights to the United States. Other US airlines that have resumed their flights are Delta Airlines, American, Spirit and United Airlines.
As reported in El Nacional, the pace of international aviation is picking up at the international airports in Santo Domingo, Punta Punta Cana Santiago, Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo. On Friday, 10 July, there were 19 flights programmed but by the end of the day 31 flights arrived, due to the demand for seats.
For Las Americas International Airport, the main airport in Santo Domingo, during the first week of operations over 32,000 passengers arrived on 169 flights. Flights landed from and departed to Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Atlanta and Miami. There were even flights from Madrid and Paris. Panama and San Juan, Puerto Rico are also providing flights.
El Nuevo Diario reported seeing Kim Kardashian and family visiting in Punta Cana.
Stats for the first half of the year indicate that travel was down 60% due to the pandemic. In the first half of the year 1.5 million persons arrived compared to 3.8 million for January-June 2019.
The breakdown for travelers for the first half of the year was 320,081 from Canada, 318,036 from the United States, 336,529 from Europe, including 72,736 from Russia. 62,132 came from France and 33,149 from Germany.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
El Nacional
El Nuevo Diario
15 July 2020