The government-owned Dominican Petroleum Refinery assuaged concerns the country may find itself without sufficient fuel stocks. The Dominican Refinery says there are enough stocks to guarantee diesel and regular gasoline, propane gas, natural gas, and fuel for jets (Avtur). For commercial jet fuel, the country has a demand of 150,000 barrels per month and the Dominican Refinery produces 180,000 barrels per month. The Abinader administration is subsidizing the price of fuels at a time when the barrel of oil (West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil) has been increasing.
The authorities do admit there is a shortage in fuel for small airplanes (100LL). The shortage affects private flights, aviation schools, and aircraft carrying out farm fumigation operations. The demand for 100LL fuel is around 1,000 barrels per year. It is imported by Chevron (GB) and Esso, not by the Dominican government. Stocks are expected to be replenished this week.
Source: DR1, El Caribe
June 22, 2022
The Dominican Association of Exporters (Adoexpo) celebrated its 50th-anniversary last week and released some interesting numbers regarding Dominican exports. Overall, in the first third of 2022, the country has exported well over US$4.1 billion in goods and services. The Industrial Free Zones lead the pack with US$2.5 billion, a 12.66% year-to-year jump, and a 33.49% increase over 2019.
Local exporters sent US$15 billion overseas, a health 5.86% increase year to year and a 32.5% upswing from 2019. The country’s biggest export item was gold, with exports of US$470.74 million. Medical instruments and equipment followed this at US$465 million. The United States is the largest recipient of Dominican exports, with 51% going north.
Source: DR1, El Caribe
June 22, 2022
The mass transit system — monorail and cable car — for the nation’s second-largest city, Santiago de los Caballeros, is estimated to cost over RD$33 billion. The winning bid for the design and construction of the system, made by the Santiago Metropolitan Transportation System Consortium (CSTM), is RD$25 billion, and the equipment is pegged at another RD$8.6 billion. The system would transport up to 40,000 passengers per hour and absorb up to 30% of the approximate 1.2 million commutes taken daily in the city. The service today is provided by conchos (shared taxis), motoconchos (shared motorcycles), mini-buses, and the infamous “voladoras,” (vans), all used by the general public.
The mass transit system will cross the entire city, from Cienfuegos in the west to Pekin in the southeast, some 15 kilometers. It will have 16 stations and a terminus that will connect with the cable car system.
The terminal building is under construction and is expected to be finished next year. The monorail is expected to be finished by the end of 2024.
Thousands of motorcycle taxis shared taxis and minibus drivers are concerned they will be out of jobs. The head honcho of the National Central for Transportation Workers, Juan Marte, was seen at the Presidential Palace late last week, to meet President Luis Abinader to express their concerns.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
June 22, 2022
EquAir announced the start of charter flights from Ecuador’s capital city Quito International Airport (UIO) to Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ).
EquAir is selling the vacation packages through St Tour, Opermundo, and MAS Travel for family travel to the Dominican beach destination this July and August 2022. The airline is marketing two weekly flights on the following departure dates: 30 July; and 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, and 27 August 2022.
The airline began operations in January 2022 with domestic flights to the Galapagos Island is also promoting flights from Quito to Willemstad, Curacao.
The airline uses a Boeing 737-700 Next-Generation aircraft with a capacity for 142 passengers.
EquAir currently operates the domestic air bridge between Quito (UIO) and Guayaquil (GYE) with six daily flights on Mondays and Fridays, and four and five on Saturdays and Sundays respectively.
The airline also offers domestic flights from Quito (UIO) to San Cristóbal in (SCY) with two weekly flights (Tuesdays and Sundays) and Baltra (GPS) with four weekly services (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays); both destinations in the Galapagos are with a stopover in Guayaquil (GYE).
EquAir is the fifth airline operating from Ecuador. The others are Latam, Avianca and Aeroregional and Ecuatoriana. As reported in AviacionLine, EquAir is the third most important airline in Ecuador in June with around 15% of the seats offered.
Source: DR1, EquAir
June 16, 2022
Tourism Minister David Collado traveled to New York City to receive the Global Traveler publication’s 10th Leisure Lifestyle and the WhereverFamily awards. Global Traveler is a monthly, AAM-audited magazine written for frequent business and luxury travelers.
In its 10th Leisure Lifestyle Awards, the Dominican Republic was chosen as the Best Caribbean Island winner for the second consecutive time. Other destination winners were Santorini, Greece; and the US destinations of Savannah, Georgia; Hilton Head, South Carolina; Alaska, and Lanai, Hawaii.
The annual survey honoring the best in the world of leisure and lifestyle travel recognizes goods, services, destinations, hotels, airlines, and cruises.
The publication that targets elite travelers announced on 8 June 2022 the winners of the survey of its readers carried out from 14 December 2021 to 30 April 2022 regarding categories of leisure, luxury, and lifestyle travel. The survey ran in the magazine, as an insert to subscriber copies, as a direct mail questionnaire, and online during the survey period.
The same company’s “WhereverFamily” web publication that targets family travel, announced the Dominican Republic was named the “Best Family-Friendly Caribbean Island” for the third consecutive year.
Source: Global Traveler USA
June 16, 2022
Windward Islands Airways International – Winair starts flights from Princess Juliana International (SXM) in Sint Maarten to Las Americas International (SDQ) in Santo Domingo on Thursday, 7 July 2022. The flights to Santo Domingo will be on Thursdays and Saturdays. Flight time is 1:45 minutes.
Winair has flights to Antigua, Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, Curacao, Dominica, St Lucia, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts, San Juan, and Tortola.
Source: Winair
June 15, 2022
Arajet is set to become the Dominican Republic’s latest airline, looking to launch flights by late July and operate commercial services from Santo Domingo to the Caribbean, Central, and South America on board its Boeing 737 MAX fleet. Simple Flying recently spoke with Víctor Pacheco, the airline’s CEO, about the plans. This is what he told us.
The newest kid on the block
The Caribbean is poorly connected and has high operational costs, which are then translated to expensive fares for travelers. To tackle these issues, Víctor Pacheco and other business people set up Arajet. This new startup will operate from the Las Américas International Airport (SDQ), located in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic.
This airport, administrated by AERODOM, a subsidiary of Vinci Airports, won a public bid to host the new airline.
Currently, around 20 airlines operate in SDQ, having about 284 weekly flights, of which 65% go to the United States, 18% to Latin America, 13% to other Caribbean islands, and the remaining percent to Europe. Only Frontier and Spirit operate within the ultra-low-cost model, meaning there’s an area of opportunity for Arajet.
The startup believes there’s a market to be tackled in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Arajet could begin flying by the end of July, said Pacheco. The airline is currently in the fourth phase of its certification process and expects to receive its Air Operator Certificate shortly.
Once Arajet receives its AOC, the airline will be able to announce the destinations it will operate to.
Which routes could Arajet fly to?
Víctor Pacheco said Simple Flying the airline still has to wait before formally announcing which routes it will operate. Nonetheless, he added that the carrier will initially operate flights to Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. He did not mention the United States, although this country should not be off the table given the relevance of the market.
Using data from Cirium, we can take a look at the most important routes to and from the Dominican Republic and Latin America.
Tocumen International Airport (PTY) in Panama has the most significant number of flights to and from the Dominican Republic in Latin America & the Caribbean. Nonetheless, these commercial services are operated by only one carrier, Copa Airlines. Each week there are over 60 flights between Panama and the Dominican Republic.
Sunrise Airways operates between two and three flights per day from Haiti to the Dominican Republic, the two neighboring countries on the island. Avianca has 16 weekly flights between Punta Cana and Bogotá, and LATAM has ten weekly flights from Lima to Punta Cana.
Overall, these are the destinations in the region that have the most connectivity with the Dominican Republic:
- Panama City, Panama
- Bogota, Colombia
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Port au Prince, Haiti
- Medellín, Colombia
- Providenciales, Caicos Islands
We can expect a few of these destinations to be served by Arajet. The Dominican airline will employ its Boeing 737 MAX fleet to operate these routes.
Arajet’s fleet
In March, Boeing and Arajet confirmed that the Dominican startup carrier placed an order for 20 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and the option for 15 additional units.
Arajet expects to receive these new aircraft beginning in 2024. Nonetheless, the airline plans to start operations this year, so it has signed a contract to lease up to 11 MAX aircraft between 2022 and 2023 (five this year, six the next one).
Overall, Arajet plans to have around 46 aircraft in the mid-future, said the airline’s CEO.
Arajet’s MAX fleet will have a capacity of 189 passengers in a single cabin, which will be the densest among the airlines in the Americas operating this aircraft. Currently, GOL Linhas Aéreas operates the densest MAX aircraft, with an average of 186 seats per plane.
Earlier this week, Arajet received its second MAX unit. Arajet’s current two MAX aircraft have registrations HI1026 and HI1027.
Source: simpleflying.com
June 2, 2022
