U.S. to sign open skies agreement with Dominican Republic in the coming days

Santo Domingo—The Dominican Republic and the United States have reached a consensus on the signing of an open skies agreement, which will reduce airfares and expand air connectivity.

According to the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, the protocol signing will be announced in the next few days by the U.S. Embassy in the country.

He hopes the agreement will reduce air transport fares, increase competitiveness in the market, and facilitate tourism between the United States and the Dominican Republic, according to El Dia.

He pointed out that air connectivity and the cost of airline tickets have become the main challenge to attracting more tourists to this destination since, in some cases, it can be more expensive for them to buy a ticket to the country than to other competing destinations in terms of tourism.

In that sense, Collado described as exaggerated that a Dominican has to pay up to US$1,700 for a flight between New York and the Dominican Republic during the Christmas season.

The head of Mitur is convinced that airfares will become cheaper with the open skies policy.

He cited the effects created by the Arajet airline in Latin America, where ticket prices are dropping in the Dominican Republic. He expects this to happen in the United States when applying the open skies policy.