Commercial aviation is the source of a significant portion of the Dominican Republic’s international economic activity, from tourism to exports. Nearly all of the money entering the economy through these sectors arrives on the wings of commercial aircraft. For aviation-sector analysts such as myself, it is therefore remarkable to observe how, time and again, government policy seems to remember that this part of the economy exists only when it is time to collect revenue—or when some public official comes up with a brilliant new idea.
That is the case with the latest statements by the outgoing president of the Civil Aviation Board (JAC), Héctor Porcella Dumas, who has spoken of once again reforming the law in order to consolidate the system into one or two institutions instead of the five principal agencies that exist today. But has Mr. Porcella built any consensus around this initiative? Not as far as we know. And this follows the same pattern of conduct Mr. Porcella has demonstrated in the past, with the 2024 reform being perhaps the clearest example.
Porcella’s Arrival in the Aviation Sector
Héctor Porcella arrived at the leadership of the Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation (IDAC) almost by accident. His education and professional experience were primarily in the private sector; he studied business administration and focused on private business activities and political involvement within the PRD. His interaction with aviation amounted to little more than that of an ordinary passenger whenever he traveled. Nevertheless, in 2020, following Luis Abinader’s rise to power, he was appointed deputy director of IDAC—a position traditionally assigned to a technical professional from the aviation sector—in violation of Law 491-06 and longstanding institutional precedent. Shortly after taking office, however, IDAC Director Román Caamaño, who had also been appointed by the new administration, was forced to step away due to health problems, leaving Mr. Porcella as acting director. What followed was a series of unfortunate events, poorly managed by an acting director who seemed fearful of any proposal for change or improvement that might threaten his position.
The Helidosa accident in December 2021 and the Red Air accident in 2022 placed considerable pressure on the institution, as did the accelerated deregulation and facilitation of the certification of new airlines such as Arajet and Sky High, both of which passed all IDAC reviews and entered operations in record time. Industry observers began noticing these pressures on the system and approached Mr. Porcella with the intention of helping. By then, however, he had surrounded himself with a closed circle of advisers and had entrenched himself in his position. His principal—and practically his only—technical adviser was Javier “Jay” Rodríguez, a Cuban-American from Miami and former inspector with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), who had established an international consulting firm following his retirement from the agency. Although the relationship between Porcella and Jay was not always the best—delayed payments reportedly created problems that even affected Jay’s health—a sudden audit would eventually lead the two gentlemen to resolve their differences and work together to weather the storm.
Our team met with Mr. Porcella in March 2022, several months after the Helidosa accident and several months before the Red Air accident. Although we made ourselves available to assist him—all of us airline captains in the United States—our advice was not welcomed. At the same time, public criticism began to emerge regarding the handling of the situation, along with growing speculation that the U.S. FAA might conduct a new operational-safety assessment of the country. Mr. Porcella initially dismissed that possibility, publicly stating that the Dominican aviation system was robust and that no such assessment was planned. When it became increasingly obvious that the FAA would in fact initiate the process, Mr. Porcella went to the media and said the reports were untrue because the United States had submitted nothing in writing. It only took the messenger arriving from the U.S. Embassy with the FAA’s letter for that narrative to change completely—from “it is not true that we are going to be audited” to “it is normal for us to be audited from time to time; we are prepared and there is nothing to worry about.” The reality is that, according to the FAA itself, these international assessments are conducted when sufficient concerns exist regarding a country’s oversight of its civil aviation system to warrant another evaluation.
What followed was a race to convince the U.S. government that everything was fine within Dominican aviation. Losing FAA Category 1 status, after the country had already experienced the same trauma in the 1990s—and had taken 16 years to recover it—would have represented a major blow to a new administration that was relying heavily on tourism as a driver of the post-pandemic economy. Jay’s team was contracted for tens of thousands of dollars per month and operated without Dominican supervision. In practice, the country’s authorities became completely subordinate to his decisions, including a reform of the Civil Aviation Law that was supposedly demanded by the FAA as part of the requirements for maintaining Category 1 status.
A Rushed Reform in 2024
What emerged was an old-fashioned reform proposal in which punishment was used as an arbitrary mechanism to force aviation professionals to comply with operational rules. Our team, knowing that such an approach could harm operational safety rather than improve it, attempted to build consensus with Mr. Porcella and the other authorities, but to no avail. What eventually reached Congress was a poorly drafted and rushed bill. It moved from one chamber to another in record time and was approved by the various committees of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate with only minimal changes. In the end, we succeeded in getting the final reviewing committee of the Chamber of Deputies to hear us, and we presented our position: the proposal was harmful to operational safety because it abandoned modern principles of collaboration and just culture. Instead of encouraging aviation professionals to report irregularities when they encountered them, the bill’s provisions imposing penalties for operational deviations created an incentive for those same professionals to conceal problems out of fear of being fined.
With a simple presentation explaining the risks to the sector, the deputies agreed with us. Yet Mr. Porcella’s legal team offered only one response: “We do not have time. The FAA wants it this way, and if we do not do it, we will lose Category 1.” And with that, reason lost and fear won. We took a leap backward and lost an opportunity for genuine improvement. The FAA ultimately agreed to maintain the country’s Category 1 status, and an entire spectacle was staged at the National Palace to receive the corresponding recognition—as though a good student were receiving his grades, almost as if it were a summa cum laude, rather than acknowledging the reality that we had nearly failed. Today, when the new director of IDAC, Igor Rodríguez, is asked why the law is not amended to eliminate that outdated philosophy, his response is simply that IDAC will not enforce that particular provision.
Now, once again, Mr. Porcella presents us with this grand idea for reforming the sector. Once again, he does so without building consensus, and once again, without providing much detail about what is actually being proposed. Certainly, consolidating parts of the sector could be beneficial, particularly if it eliminates overlapping departments or institutions. But what matters most is bringing the system into a modern organizational structure—one that, above all, improves operational safety. Of course, that can only be accomplished through consensus among the technical professionals who actually understand the system. Unfortunately, in our country, those professionals are often the least important voices when decisions are being made about how things should be done.
