Santo Domingo, RD.
Airport authorities implemented new health checks at Las Américas Airport (AILA) on Wednesday, including a military checkpoint, as part of preventive measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, amid an increase in the influx of passengers to the country of outside on the occasion of the Christmas holidays.
At the entrance to the terminal, a checkpoint has been set up on Route 66 a few meters from Las Américas airport facilities with military and police personnel overseeing each vehicle to ensure they are not carrying a greater amount than agreed by the Health authorities .
The measure finds that only two people visit the airport to pick up a family member arriving or leaving the country.
In the early morning hours of this Wednesday, long queues of vehicles were seen in the place where drivers were waiting to go through the military check and search for or take their relatives. However, in the early hours of the afternoon, the situation eased.
With the measure, public health and airport authorities are trying to control the agglomeration of people in the departure area of passengers and prevent the place from becoming a source of coronavirus infections.
It was recently reported that an inordinate number of people gathered in the departure area of the passengers who came to receive relatives who had arrived from abroad for the Good Night and New Year’s festivities.
INCREASE PASSENGER FLOW IN THE AILA
In the case of passenger movements, according to unofficial data, more than 160,000 passengers, most of them absent from the Dominican Republic, have arrived in the country, through the airports concessioned by the Aeropuertos Dominicanos XXI company.
Of that figure, according to the same preliminary data provided by the airport authorities, 87% percent came in through Las Américas International Airport, José Fráncico Peña Gómez, where it is going from this month of December.
The mostly absent Dominican passengers come from New York, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia, Massachusetts and San Juan Puerto Rico.
The influx of travelers and flights from countries on the European mainland such as Madrid, Spain, Paris, France, Rome, Italy, the Netherlands, Havana, Cuba and the Caribbean islands has also increased.
Not only do they arrive, but also due to the order of departure, many people take advantage of the Christmas period to go on holiday abroad.
The airline counters on the second floor of the terminal register an unusual presence of passengers queuing to check their documents with the airlines leaving the country.
Most travelers take their wives and underage children to cities in the United States and Europe to enjoy the time of Good Night and New Year’s Eve.
PARKING POSSIBILITIES
Aerodom also ordered the installation of five new parking machines with the aim of streamlining the process of charging and disembarking passengers from the car park, as well as extending the grace period from 15 to 45 minutes in the car park.
With these facilities, travelers can leave the airport car park faster with their car.
At Christmas, there are long lines of passenger vehicles in that section of the terminal returning to the country from various points abroad, essentially when two and three flights arrive at the same time.
COVID-19 PREUBS FOR PASSENGERS
In the implementation of sanitary measures in the AILA, the Ministry of Health will be involved in the process of staffing the Directorate-General for Migration, measuring the temperature, ensuring physical distance and ensuring the use of masks by passengers.
Monika Infante de Henríquez, general manager of Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo 21 (Aerodom), stated that the random tests carried out by public health personnel relate to terminals B and A operating at the airport.
“At this point, the government, through the executive director of the airport division, took Víctor Pichardo on a tour of all areas of the airport, monitoring and verifying in which areas the tests against Covid-19 are being applied to passengers,” said he.
He added that the average number of random tests is 15%, but they can be increased at peak times, with high traffic, and reduced in hours with low traffic, to ensure a maximum of 15 minutes in the waiting area.
INCREASE SECURITY IN THE AILA
At the terminal, officers from the Specialized Tourist Security Corps (Cestur) and the Specialized Corps for Airport Security and Civil Aviation (Cesac) have been expanded to accelerate flight flow and ensure compliance with protocols.
While in the passenger waiting area and around the airline’s caunters on the second floor of the terminal, a larger presence of officers from Cesac, Cestur and National Police could be seen this Wednesday.