The president of growing Dominican Republic-based low-cost airline Alajet is optimistic that the recently negotiated Open Skies Treaty will ease the process of starting service to the United States.
Aeromexico CEO Victor Pacheco said the company hopes to launch routes from Santo Domingo and Punta Cana to Miami, the New York area and San Juan by Christmas, and he sees that timeline as promising.
“All people can do is hope,” Pacheco said.
The United States and the Dominican Republic signed the Open Skies Agreement, the U.S.’s 136th Open Skies treaty, on Aug. 2. If the treaty is ratified by the Dominican Congress and approved by the U.S., it is expected to streamline the path for airlines to add service between the two countries.
The agreement will allow airlines from each country to operate an unlimited number of flights to an unlimited number of destinations between the two countries, and will also allow for stopover routes to third countries.
Current U.S.-Dominican Republic treaties limit the number of destinations that airlines from each country can serve in the other country unless they get special permission, but U.S. airlines regularly get such permission from the tourism-friendly Dominican government.
Arajet, which began operations in September 2022, currently has a fleet of 10 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft and serves 23 destinations in 16 countries.
The airline, whose largest investor is Boston-based Bain Capital, is headquartered in Santo Domingo, but will open a new hub in Punta Cana on Oct. 27 and begin flying 11 routes.
Arajet’s destinations span the Americas, from Montreal and Toronto in the north to Buenos Aires and Santiago, Chile in the south. But the United States is conspicuously absent from its route map.
The company applied for approval for U.S. routes in February 2023, but the application remains pending.
Two Dominican Republic airlines, SkyHigh Dominicana and Red Air, currently serve the U.S. SkyHigh, the larger of the two, will operate a total of 50 flights on three routes this month, according to flight schedules data from Cirium.
But the market is dominated by much larger US carriers. Leader JetBlue offered more than 241,000 seats between the US and the Dominican Republic last month, giving it a 43.4% share. American Airlines followed with 97,000 seats. Delta and United Airlines also have large presences in the market, as do Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines and Southwest Airlines.
Pacheco said Arajet has three target markets once it is able to offer its services in the United States.
The primary target audience is Dominicans visiting friends and family in both countries.
A second focus is connecting leisure travelers between the U.S. and various South American destinations, including Brazil, Peru, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador, via Santo Domingo and Punta Cana. Even without U.S. flights, Pacheco said Arajet has optimized its network to operate 200 connecting flights. This business model would put it in competition with Copa Airlines and its Panama City base in the Americas and Caribbean connecting market, according to a recent analysis by the CAPA Center for Aviation. Pacheco said Arajet would also compete with the connecting network of Bogota, Colombia-based Avianca.
Pacheco said leisure travelers are Alajet’s third target market segment in the U.S. The airline plans to begin distributing its first GDSs in November, but declined to disclose which GDSs it will distribute through because the deals have not yet been made public.
To compete with major U.S. airlines and incumbent airlines, Pacheco said Allajet will rely on low prices, reliable operations and passenger comfort that exceeds that of other low-cost carriers.
Standard seats on Arajet have the same 28-inch row pitch as Frontier and Spirit, but extra-legroom seats have 32-inch row pitch. The airline also offers reclining seatbacks and in-seat power (not available on Spirit or Frontier) on all seats.
“We offer a product that combines the power of low fares with on-time performance and comfort,” Pacheco said.
