The power outage in Las Américas sparks controversy in Congress.

The power outage that lasted more than nine hours at the José Francisco Peña Gómez Las Américas International Airport (AILA) alarmed Congressional legislators, given an incident for which there are still few answers.

Considering that tourism is the country's main economic activity, and that more than 30 flights were affected, according to preliminary reports, deputies and senators agree that the situation should be investigated to correct any deficiencies in the future.

The Senator of Independence, Dagoberto Rodríguez , attacked the company Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI ( Aerodom ) for its responsibility in the maintenance of the air terminal.

"What happened is very unfortunate, but Aerodom has to take into account what could happen... I'm sure Punta Cana International Airport, or Frank Rainieri , has to have a plan B if that happens," he said.

He added that the failure of AILA service was not a weakness of the Central Government or the electricity distribution companies, because it is a responsibility of Aerodom as the beneficiary of the concession contract for the maintenance and management of six national airports.

The representative from abroad, Kenia Bidó , stated that, while the situation should call for a "review," it must be taken into account that the company that manages the terminal is carrying out a series of renovations and remodeling that could have caused the interruption.

"There's no justification for an airport to have this type of problem , but it's also not something that can't happen; it can happen in the Dominican Republic and anywhere else in the world," he said.

Deputies from the Fuerza del Pueblo (FP) party agreed that the fact that AILA passengers had to experience power outages for such a prolonged period is highly worrying for the country's international image.

"We hope the relevant authorities will issue reports that will convince the public that what happened there was an incident, as stipulated, and that we will try to prevent situations of this type," said Santiago representative José David Báez .

Likewise, Alcibíades Tavárez , a representative from San Pedro de Macorís, stated that one of the main problems is that this affects the country's image in an industry as competitive as tourism .

"The issue is also that we as a country have competition in the area of ​​tourism , and this news has been reported in international media, so the country's image is seriously challenged," he said.

Service has now been restored.

Yesterday, at 9:18 a.m., AILA experienced a power outage , a failure in the equipment responsible for redistributing power to internal substations. The institution's latest report indicates that 47 flights were affected, of which 29 were arriving and 18 were departing.

Without power, the jetways connecting planes to the terminal were inoperable, and passengers had to disembark via stairs and walk through the heat. Baggage was handled manually upon arrival and departure, which increased delays.

Operations were partially restored at 2:15 p.m. , but it was not until four hours later (at 6:05 a.m.) that Aerodom reported that the facility was fully operational.

• As a result of the system failure , six flights to Punta Cana were diverted: Spirit 1567 (Orlando), United 1984 (Newark), Delta 1917 (New York JFK), United 2404 (Newark), Copa 298 (Panama) and Arajet 1503 (Bogotá).
• Santiago's Cibao Airport received Delta flights 1958 (Atlanta), JetBlue flights 1009 (New York JFK), and American Airlines flights 2367 (Miami). Delta flights 9961 (Atlanta) and JetBlue flights 605 (Orlando) were also canceled .

At 2:00 a.m. today, another outage occurred, which, according to Aerodom , was necessary to replace a generator. The company stated that, following the intervention, power was restored safely and in a timely manner, without any disruptions to flights scheduled for this Monday.

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