Carrier JetBlue


American Airlines Continental Airlines Delta Air Lines Spirit


Air Dominica US Airways


Air Azul Annual Total


US Departures to/from Santo Domingo 2005-2010 2005 2006 2007 962,777,014 822,631,550 830,405,241


13,922,000 111,706,090 121,294,665 123,448,340


71,494,546 0


2008 2009


0 90,325,800 209,083,650 505,102,950 629,291,949 449,935,839


132,384,351 170,928,515 175,921,888 131,438,485 122,164,072 66,812,926 0


Pan Am Clipper Connection 2,479,140 Iberia


59,589,062 49,726,740 0


3,784,200 0 0


5,538,345


9,749,376 7,124,544 20,061,216 0 0


0 518,925 0 0


5-year total 818,444,400 3,695,039,593


138,881,715 138,388,780 633,721,590 752,837,309


105,917,701 87,608,380 72,960,279 402,795,832 0


0 21,632,118


21,632,118 146,250,938 2,479,140


0 0 3,784,200 0


6,057,270


1,353,466,783 1,241,614,359 1,334,285,271 1,203,428,723 1,330,245,254 6,463,040,390 Source OAG.


“The Ministry of Tourism is headed by Francisco Javier Garcia and I can tell you that right from the presidential level, tourism development and the role of our airports in developing the economy, is a signifi cant focus, right from the very top,” says O’Brian. “What we have found is that the legacy carriers or big European airlines that we have been courting tend to be very interested in working with the Dominican government and fi nding out what kind of incentives the Ministry of Tourism and the government itself are willing to offer on the marketing side. So, if you are going to bring a fl ight out of Manchester or London, the airline wants to see a signifi cant incentive package for them to be able to market that fl ight in the origin city and support for at least the fi rst year while it gets established.” This is not the case with the low-cost carrier services though.


“The low-cost carriers, who are fl ying narrowbody aircraft from much closer origin cities in the US, Central America or Caribbean, usually talk to us directly and ask for incentives such as reduced


www.routesonline.com


landing fees or parking fees, or reduced offi ce space at the airport. If you reduce any of those anticipated variable costs, that can make a difference on their fare pricing and make them more competitive,” he says.


Looking ahead Latin America’s aviation industry continues to grow faster than the world average and airline consolidation and airport infrastructure remain hot topics for the region.


O’Brian believes that the major Latin American airline consolidations, such as TAM and LAN’s proposed merger, will be to his company’s advantage. “From an Aerodom perspective, we see it as a positive. We believe the market will continue to consolidate and become more effi cient. We see it, in many respects, as good competition and good healthy market driven competition in the market and it should continue to stimulate traffi c and growth.” He adds that the privitisation model demonstrated by Aerodom in the Dominican Republic is one that has


worked well throughout the Latin American region.


“Aerodom is 100% private equity owned. We have been running the concession since 2000 under a 30-year FBOT (fi nance, build, operate, transfer) model. This is a fantastic model as it gives us 30 years to get a return on our investment. We had to invest over $300 million under our concession contract in a construction and development programme in the airfi elds and terminal buildings.


“Before we took over these airports were very ineffi cient, and in some ways unsafe, government-run institutions. As part of the infrastructure for a country that was counting on tourism it was quite pitiful the way that they were operated. The government made a good decision to privitise and they hammered out a good contract which forced us to invest.” He adds that a similar model has been followed by Chile, Colombia and Peru in its key gateways, which are consistently recognised for leading customer service and infrastructure in the region.


RN


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