Dominican Republic's Arajet To Open Flights To New York Market In June

The carrier will use a Boeing 737-8 aircraft to fly between Las Américas Santo Domingo Airport (SDQ) and EWR. The route will be operated 4X-weekly from June 16.

Following the finalization in December of a Dominican-U.S. open skies agreement, Arajet said it would begin flying to Miami, New York and San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2025. Flights between SDQ and MIami will kick off April 11 and be flown 4X-weekly. Service between SDQ and San Juan, also to be operated 4X-weekly, is scheduled to commence June 4. 

The carrier has now unveiled that EWR, not New York John F. Kennedy International Airport, will be the New York metropolitan area airport it will serve.

Arajet, founded in 2022, aims to turn SDQ into a “new hub of the Americas” enabling one-stop connections between North and South America, similar to the model Panama’s Copa Airlines has deployed in Panama City. New York is “home to the largest community of the Dominican diaspora” in the U.S., Arajet said, adding the route is expected to also attract a large amount of VFR traffic. 

“New York is a key market to strengthen our U.S. presence,” Arajet CEO Victor Pacheco said in a statement. “The Newark service will complement routes between the [Dominican Republic], Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico, to establish Arajet as a carrier of choice for U.S. travelers.”

Pacheco previously told Aviation Week that “Arajet envisions transforming the Dominican Republic into a premier connecting hub of the Americas and democratizing the region’s skies through lower fares and optionality. The Dominican Republic’s strategic location … allows for convenient connectivity throughout the region.”

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,” CCO Manuel Luna previously told Aviation Week. “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.

He said 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.

Countries already served by the carrier include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, plus Central American and Caribbean destinations.

Pacheco recently told Aviation Week’s Window Seat podcast that the Dominican-U.S. open skies agreement is vital to the carrier’s prospects. “Without open skies, you have an airline that is fighting only with one hand,” he said. “We always expected that the U.S. would be part of our strategy much sooner, but now that it's here, we are ready to grow.”