Dominican Carrier Arajet Sees U.S. Flights As Key To Building Santo Domingo Hub

Dominican Republic-based Arajet has significant ambitions in the U.S. market, which the airline plans to start serving next year and views as critical to developing Las Americas International Airport (SDQ) in Santo Domingo as a north-south connecting hub.

The airline, founded in 2022, has eagerly been anticipating the finalization of a Dominican-U.S. open skies agreement, which formally took effect on Dec. 19. Flying to the U.S. “has since the beginning been our main goal,” Manuel Luna, Arajet’s CCO, told Aviation Week following the carrier announcing Dec. 20 it will open service from SDQ to New York, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the 2025 second quarter.

Arajet will fly the routes with Boeing 737-8 aircraft. It operates a fleet of 10 of the type, with an 11^th 737-8 expected to be delivered by the 2025 second quarter and 15 scheduled to be in the fleet by the end of next year.

“We're probably not going to start with a daily flight [on the three U.S. routes], but our goal is by the end of 2025 to have a daily flight to the three destinations from Santo Domingo,” Luna said. He added flights to the U.S. will also likely be launched from Dominican cities Punta Cana and Santiago de Los Caballeros at some point in 2025.

“Our main focus in 2025 is to fly to the U.S. and put as many flights as possible to those three destinations,” Luna said.

He explained Arajet’s U.S. routes aim to serve the Dominican diaspora in the U.S., where an estimated 2.4 million Dominican Americans live, as well as attract tourists. But a central goal is to turn the Dominican capital into a connecting hub between the U.S. and South America, with flights to and from Miami especially important.

“We're building a hub, a new hub of the Americas here in Santo Domingo,” Luna said. “And this is going to allow people from South America to fly with cheap tickets to Miami through our hub. People from Sao Paulo, from Buenos Aires, from Santiago de Chile, from Ecuador, from Lima—they can now use the Dominican Republic as a new connection option. And they can also stay here for a few days, have a little vacation, and then go to Miami.”

Arajet seeks to eventually have widespread coverage in the U.S. market. “We're looking forward to having destinations on the West Coast, in the center and in the northeast,” Luna said. “We are talking about Boston, Philadelphia … Chicago, Washington, Orlando, Atlanta, maybe Dallas or Houston or Denver.” He added there is “a big probability” of serving Los Angeles.

The open skies agreement is “very, very good news” for Arajet, Luna said.