“This country resists three more native airlines; there we go”

The official maintains that investors trust the legal certainty and the Dominican investment policy

The president of the Civil Aviation Board (JAC), José Ernesto Marte Piantini, assured that the Dominican Republic resists two or three more native airlines “and that is where we are going.”

“Of course,” the official said when asked if, in addition to the new Arajet airline, there are others in the pipeline to join the Dominican market.

Interviewed at the Weekly Breakfast of elCaribe and CDN, he indicated that they work with another very important airline, with Dominican capitals and other types. “Naturally, that will be up to the President (Luis Abinader) to say so at the time. But we went out into the world to do that,” he pointed out.

Arajet, announced last week, will generate around 4,000 direct jobs and 40,000 indirect jobs over the next five years.

It is estimated that it will transport seven million passengers a year, with 43 air routes, of which 24 new routes are projected that are not currently served in the market.

Arajet -of Dominican and foreign capital- has said that it will allocate around US$2.1 billion to the purchase of 20 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, an amount that could increase to US$4.2 billion to acquire another 20 aircraft and complete an order for 40.

But what elements whet the appetite of investors, when in a complex context like the current one they look to the Dominican Republic and not other countries to place their capitals? elCaribe asked Marte Piantini.

“Well, that speaks very well of the confidence they have in the sector and in the country. It has a lot to do with the public investment policy that the Dominican Republic has in general and that President Luis Abinader has strengthened,” he replied.

José Ernesto Marte Piantini recognizes that a challenge in aviation is that of connectivity. Maintaining the open sky policy implies precisely what it suggests: higher frequencies, greater connectivity, more planes on Dominican soil and other important aspects, especially that inherent to the incorporation of new airlines in the country; something like create hub.

The president of the JAC attended the meeting reinforced with a significant amount of information. Sometimes he served them “upside down” and other times he used some numerical annotations that summarize the level of activity and operations that exist, for example, in Dominican airports.

Some airports that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) constantly “takes a look at” and has given a high score when evaluating issues such as quality and safety levels. ICAO is an agency of the United Nations Organization that studies world aviation problems and promotes unique regulations and standards in universal aeronautics.

Marte Piantini was accompanied by the secretary of the JAC, Paola Plá; Juberkis Luciano, in charge of the Air Transport Department, and Hermes Macariello, from the Communications area.

Participating on behalf of the Caribbean and CDN were Nelson Rodríguez and Alba Nely Familia, director and director of the media, respectively; Dalton Herrera, coordinator of the digital part of the newspaper; Rafael Lara, for the television plant, and the author of this writing (Martín Polanco).

External view from the DR

JAC statistics indicate that the Dominican Republic has signed 70 air service agreements throughout its history, while in the current administration, from August 16, 2020 to date, five legal instruments have been signed. Among them are two air services amendment protocols and three air services agreements.

“Gentlemen, at a time when we could not meet with any country, when everything was going virtual due to the pandemic, we managed to sign these agreements of great importance,” Marte Piantini highlighted.

“There are clear rules of the game here, there are no obstacles and people are surprised at how we can implement important air policies,” he said.

The conversation with the officials of the JAC was extensive, it was even enough to share a breakfast and a moment outside the formality of a journalistic interview. There was laughter and there was even talk of politics.

José Ernesto Marte Piantini defended “through thick and thin” President Luis Abinader’s decision to open up tourism… the so-called “industry without a chimney”, which constitutes one of the pillars of the national economy. And indeed, while real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 12.3% year-on-year in the January-December 2021 period, largely thanks to the acceleration of capital spending by the government in the last quarter, tourism contributed an important part of the “spark” achieved. That’s what the figures from the Central Bank say. By then, tourism, seen as hotels, bars and restaurants, contributed 39.5% to the aforementioned growth, while construction grew 23.4%, and manufacturing from free zones 20.3%.

The president of the JAC stated that “without a decision by Luis Abinader, opening local tourism to the world would be difficult.”

“Without the support of him and other institutions that converge in the Civil Aviation Board, such as the Ministry of Tourism, IDAC, the Airport Department and CESAC, it would be impossible,” he said.

He highlighted the work carried out by the Executive in seeking to obtain vaccines to inoculate the population, a factor that made it possible for the Dominican nation to become more dynamic and return to the growth paths it is experiencing.

“Although it is true that this year the projection is that tourism will fully recover, here there are countries that are still closed,” he said.

He recalled that the first ICAO meeting was held virtually with the participation of 193 countries. “Let me tell you that the wonder was the Dominican Republic, because we could tell the world how we did it and how the tourists were arriving and they were not getting infected. Be careful, there were spikes, because it was a pandemic and we couldn’t deny that or avoid it. The reality is that we made a great effort and managed with a great technical team”, he explained.

He took advantage of the space to give credits to the human resource that works in the JAC. “I do not believe that any institution in this country has a technical team with greater capacity than the Civil Aviation Board has,” he assured.

Russia and Ukraine… The human

Responding to questions about how the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could be reflected in terms of tourism in the Dominican Republic, he highlighted in the initial part of his answer how terrible this war is from the human and economic point of view for the people affected and involved in it. war.

He argued that -possibly- after the health crisis due to covid-19 this is the other difficult situation facing the country. But the Aviation Board is not daunted and works flat out to do everything that is its responsibility, for the benefit of the country and so that tourism continues on the right path, the public official assured in the talk.

“We have been giving answers to passengers,” he says with a hint of satisfaction.

“To give you an idea, from January to February passengers coming from Russia became the second tourists after the United States. And at that time we were already around 200-odd million dollars. This conflict that generates the projection to 2022, we are talking about 777 million dollars. And that is a lot of money,” she warned.

When a situation arises in the world that affects tourism in the Dominican Republic, this in turn affects institutions such as the JAC, which do not have a stable budget.

This institution receives only 50 cents of a dollar for each transported passenger, when the distribution is made among the entities linked to the tourism-aviation branch of what is received for aeronautical taxes (which is US$15.00), airport taxes that are charged for the provision of aeronautical services and airport services to passengers transported in and out and to regular and non-regular (charter) airlines that operate to and from the Dominican Republic on international flights.

In round numbers, what the JAC receives to fulfill its obligations is equivalent to about 30 or 35 million pesos per month. “When we reached the position there were no eight million monthly… it was barely to cover the payroll and we have been juggling to be able to sustain that institution,” said the public official.

The other institutions that receive resources are the Ministry of Tourism, the Airport Department, the Specialized Corps of Airport Security and Civil Aviation (CESAC) and the Dominican Air Force (FARD), to cover the acquisition and financing of military aircraft that contribute to the surveillance and control of the Dominican airspace and to the strengthening of the security of the air operations carried out to and from this country, which the Executive Power ordered for these purposes.

Between August 2020 and February 2022, the JAC has authorized 16,771 air operations under the charter modality. “Gentlemen, post-pandemic, that is something almost for a normal activity. Of these, 7,903 correspond to exclusive cargo operations and 8,868 to passenger and combined transport operations, calculated the incumbent of the JAC.

And he highlighted the synergy that exists today with other government agencies.

Curriculum and vice-presidency of CLAC

José Ernesto Marte Piantini was born in Santo Domingo and is a communicator and Doctor of Law, graduated from the Universidad Central del Este in 1988.

In 2010 he completed his studies in Constitutional Law (Constitutional Justice and Jurisdictional Guarantees), and in 2012 in Administrative Law and Public Law, both at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, where he also obtained a Master’s Degree in Law, according to the life supplied to this newspaper.

He has studied Policies and Communication Strategies for the modernization of the Justice Sector and in social security, at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo in 2010. He specialized in law, insurance and economics, at the Universidad Iberoamericana (Unibe). She has shared her Law career with Communication, achieving notoriety in various radio and television spaces in which she has ventured and in social circles. As president of the JAC he was appointed through decree 329-20, on August 16, 2020.

The Head of State delegated to him, as head of the JAC, the responsibility of establishing the superior policy of civil aviation and regulating economic aspects, applying rules and regulations in the areas of his competence. In his management as president of the JAC, he has been decorated with the Civil Aviation Security Merit Medal, awarded by CESAC on January 17, 2022, by presidential decree, and with the “Pan American Flight” Medal. in the category of Civil Aviation Representative, awarded by the FARD, on February 15, 2022.

Marte Piantini represents the Dominican Republic as vice president of the Executive Committee of the Latin American Civil Aviation Commission (CLAC), an international organization whose primary objective is to provide civil aviation authorities in Latin America with an adequate structure within which they can discuss and plan all the measures required for the cooperation and coordination of civil aviation activities.

He reported that the Dominican Republic is running for the second vice presidency in elections to be held in CLAC. “The President of the Republic gave us a power to represent the Government and hold those aspirations. We hope this week to come with that vice presidency, ”he indicated.