Cuba and the Dominican Republic have signed an updated air services agreement that ends restrictions on the number of airlines that can operate between the two Caribbean countries.

The Cuba-Dominican air services accord, which had been in place since 2005, had limited each country to designating two airlines to fly between the markets.

José Ernesto Marte Piantini, president of Dominican aviation regulator Junta de Aviación Civil (JAC), says in a statement that the newly signed agreement allows “all national airlines [to] operate passenger, baggage and cargo air transport services from the national territory to Cuba and vice versa.”

He adds that renegotiating the agreement was done with the “objective of updating the document signed 18 years ago ... to increase the flow of passengers, trade, connectivity and consequently air transport between the territories."

Piantini continues: "[Cuba and the Dominican are] two of the most important economies in the Caribbean that from now on are closer ... in terms of commercial aviation."

Cuba and the Dominican have also agreed to jointly analyze “the capacity of air services between both states, the current needs of the market and increasing the number of flights between both territories,” according to the JAC.

The Dominican regulatory body adds that the new agreement commits the countries “to establish unlimited frequencies for the operation of air services” on certain routes and enables Dominican airlines “to increase their frequencies” to Havana.