Punta Cana International Airport will receive 508 flights from 21 airlines from nine countries in July.
The airport has increased the use of equipment with modern contactless technology to prevent and contain the spread of COVID-19 and to offer a safe, fast, and trouble-free travel experience to its customers. They will only be operating in terminal A and when operations increase, terminal B will open.
According to the airport statistics, for the first week, from July 1 to 5, they will receive 50 flights; from July 6 to 12 there will be 107; from 13 to 19 they will have 116; 118 from July 20 to 26, and 117 for the week of July 27 to August 2.
In the month of July, the airport would be receiving the arrival of tourists from Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Panama, and Puerto Rico.
From Jet Blue airlines; Air Transat; Spirit Airlines; Thomson Airways; Edelweiss Air; Copa Airlines; Condor; Air Canada Roug; Tuifly Netherlands; Suncountry; West Jet Airlines; United Airlines; among others.
In the months of April, May, and June they have received 43 flights with a state of emergency in the country; Of these, 33 have been for repatriation and six for cargo handling.
The director of terminal operations and maintenance of the airport, Rafael Alberto Smith, said that the State has lost US $ 700 million of income due to closure of the airport in recent months. He said that directly generate 512 jobs and more than seven thousand indirect; of their permanent employees all continue to receive their full salary.
He specified that none of the commercial premises within the airports are paying rent because they pay per passenger.
He indicated that the airport before the coronavirus had as a goal and part of its strategic planning of three to five years to become a smart and touchless airport with the use of new contactless technology, and now with the pandemic, this plan will be done in a year.
With this technology, the passenger who is traveling can obtain their boarding pass and suitcase by themselves and only go to one of the 98 available counters to check-in the suitcase. Meanwhile, people entering the country will be able to use the auto gate machines, which aim to speed up the review of the passports of travelers of nine nationalities, among them American, Canadian, German, French, among others.
The airport has implemented different sanitary measures within its facilities, ranging from mandatory use of masks by everyone and space with established social distance. In addition, disinfection and cleaning of all areas will be done constantly. All these measures are to guarantee the well-being of travelers.
Smith highlighted that thermal imaging cameras have been installed to take people’s temperatures for the entry and exit process, which will be monitored by personnel from the Ministry of Public Health. They also installed two scanner machines (the only ones in the country) where the CESAC security body will not have to touch passengers and they were installed since the airport is looking to the United States to install its customs and immigration technologies.
Source: Domincan Today.
