NewsWhore
03-12-2009, 04:00 PM
The nation's airports are rejecting decree 179-09 that eliminates the small surcharge for handling airfreight that is applied to the airlines, on the grounds that this change breaches the air terminals commercial contract rights. The airports' position is set out in a document signed by executives of Aeropuerto Dominicanos Siglo XXI (Aerodom), Cibao International Airport, Punta Cana Airport and La Romana Airport, who all make up the Association of Airports.
The document says that they were not consulted about the decree. The new regulation, 179-09, is dated yesterday and was made public during a meeting of the Summit follow-up commission at the PUCMM campus in Santo Domingo by Economy, Planning and Development Minister Temistocles Montas. The Airport Association said that the charge makes up less than 4% of the cost of shipping for the freighters and that the measure would only benefit the airlines that charge high prices for freight, but not the export sector. According to El Caribe, the airports asked the Airport Commission to reject the request from the perishable goods export sector to reduce the surcharge on each pound of freight exported that is applied to airfreight. "The airports charge the airlines for the use of the facilities and the airport infrastructure, facilities that, in turn, serve to support the very air freighters and the cargo handlers for the development of their airport businesses, making money from the export sector," they stated. In a letter sent to the Minister of Public Works, Victor Diaz Rua, the president, ex-oficio of the Airport Commission, the airport operators point out that the airlines do not necessarily have to transfer the price they pay for the use of the airport facilities to the exporters, nor should the airports be penalized for this transfer of costs of the contracts with the Dominican government. Felix M. Garcia, president of the Cibao Airport board of directors, said that the exporters astutely took their problem to the national summit, "and they have issued a decree that makes it impossible to collect these four cents." As a result, plain and simple, no freight will leave the airports because the airports will not handle it. Garcia said, "This has already been rejected." Temistocles Montas reported that talks were under way with the Director of Customs in the hope of implementing a measure aimed at solving the problem "in order to ease the situation for the airports." In a letter from representatives of the Dominican airports, copied to Montas, Presidential legal advisor Abel Rodriguez del Orbe, Presidential Chief of Staff Cesar Pina Toribio and Administrative Minister Luis Manuel Bonetti, and Minister of Industry and Commerce Jose Ramon Fadul, the airport operators said that the reduction of the surcharge did not make any sense.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)
The document says that they were not consulted about the decree. The new regulation, 179-09, is dated yesterday and was made public during a meeting of the Summit follow-up commission at the PUCMM campus in Santo Domingo by Economy, Planning and Development Minister Temistocles Montas. The Airport Association said that the charge makes up less than 4% of the cost of shipping for the freighters and that the measure would only benefit the airlines that charge high prices for freight, but not the export sector. According to El Caribe, the airports asked the Airport Commission to reject the request from the perishable goods export sector to reduce the surcharge on each pound of freight exported that is applied to airfreight. "The airports charge the airlines for the use of the facilities and the airport infrastructure, facilities that, in turn, serve to support the very air freighters and the cargo handlers for the development of their airport businesses, making money from the export sector," they stated. In a letter sent to the Minister of Public Works, Victor Diaz Rua, the president, ex-oficio of the Airport Commission, the airport operators point out that the airlines do not necessarily have to transfer the price they pay for the use of the airport facilities to the exporters, nor should the airports be penalized for this transfer of costs of the contracts with the Dominican government. Felix M. Garcia, president of the Cibao Airport board of directors, said that the exporters astutely took their problem to the national summit, "and they have issued a decree that makes it impossible to collect these four cents." As a result, plain and simple, no freight will leave the airports because the airports will not handle it. Garcia said, "This has already been rejected." Temistocles Montas reported that talks were under way with the Director of Customs in the hope of implementing a measure aimed at solving the problem "in order to ease the situation for the airports." In a letter from representatives of the Dominican airports, copied to Montas, Presidential legal advisor Abel Rodriguez del Orbe, Presidential Chief of Staff Cesar Pina Toribio and Administrative Minister Luis Manuel Bonetti, and Minister of Industry and Commerce Jose Ramon Fadul, the airport operators said that the reduction of the surcharge did not make any sense.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)