17/03/2009 17:14:59
Where tourists are coming from is changing as far as Santo Domingo and much of the rest of the Dominican Republic is concerned, according to Las Americas International Airport commercial director Ken Hassard. He says that current stats show that traffic from the Americas is filling in for slowdowns in flows from Europe, and low-cost carriers and the Internet are picking up the slack in tour operator bookings.
There is logic to the growth in traffic for Santo Domingo. Hassard stresses that population-wise Santo Domingo is the seventh largest city if it were in North America, and the 4th largest if it were in continental US. "Airlines cannot not consider Santo Domingo," he makes the point.
Southwest is expected to begin flights in time for the next winter season, WestJet from Canada will be providing a regular service, Interjet from Mexico and Gol and Azul from Brazil could soon become options for travelers to and from Santo Domingo.
Hassard says that what is happening is that through their efforts to restructure air service to reduce dependence on the legacy carriers, "a de-facto hub has been created at Las Americas."
Over the years, direct linkages have been created to new points including Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Atlanta and Boston. Coming up are scheduled linkages with Providence, Rhode Island (Southwest) and the Washington/Baltimore (JetBlue) in addition to direct linkages with Toronto and Montreal. Likewise, talks are advanced for improving direct services to South America.
Hassard stresses that the growth in traffic is not coming from Europe," it is coming from South America".
Air Transportation of America Association stats show that in 2008 international traffic grew by more than 4%. Latin American routes showed a growth rate of 4.5%. Compared to a 3.5% drop for the Pacific and a 5% drop for domestic routes, UNWTO Barometer confirms that Latin America was one of the bright spots of air transport in 2008. 106 million passengers were carried by members of the Latin American Air Transport Association - ALTA, from Jan to Nov 2008, up 6% over the 2007 level.
Passenger traffic rose by 9.9%, as against a 7.8% rise in 2007 - thereby bucking the worldwide trend of a slowdown, while seat load factor increased by half a percentage point to 71.3%. International traffic overall for ALTA airlines in the first 11 months of 2008 increased by 12.6% while domestic traffic grew 6%.
