Chile and the Dominican Republic shorten the distance with a direct flight three times a week

The flight connecting the two countries takes just over seven hours.

Arajet airlines inaugurated flights between Santo Domingo and Santiago de Chile, a new route that connects the Dominican Republic and 22 other cities in the Americas.

The inaugural flight landed at 2:45 a.m. on Monday at Santiago’s Arturo Merino Benítez airport, with a return flight to the Dominican capital two hours later.

Those first two trips were loaded with the Pan American dream of dozens of athletes who arrived at the last week of the Santiago 2023 Games and said goodbye to the competition, some with medals on their chests and others with the hope of climbing the podium in future competitions.

Tennis player Roberto Cid, bronze medalist at the Games (in doubles with Rick Hardt), was in charge of cutting the inaugural ribbon at the Santiago airport.

The flight connecting the two countries takes just over seven hours. Dominican citizens require a visa to enter Chilean territory. They may enter if they have a U.S. visa.

The flight takes on special importance for Vinci Airports, the parent company of Aeropuerto Dominicanos Siglo XXI (Aerodom), because it becomes the first connection from the Dominican Republic to the terminal of its airport network.