While Canadians are already buying into Arajet’s message of convenient connections to the Caribbean and South and Central America through its Santo Domingo hub, the low-fare airline’s founder and CEO believes sunseekers in this country will also find the soon-to-launch Toronto and Montreal service ideal for transit to the Dominican Republic directly, whether as final destination or for two-island holidays in the Caribbean.
In Canada this week to promote Arajet’s service from this country – Oct. 24 from YYZ and Nov. 7 from YUL – Victor Pacheco says the new flights will provide a low-cost option for both Canadian travellers and the Dominican diaspora, operating four times a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
Santo Domingo is a fascinating destination, he says, touting its history and gastronomy, and a great place see a baseball game. The city’s colonial zone marks the oldest continuously established European city in the Americas and a UNESCO world heritage site – established by Christopher Colombus’s brother, Bartholomew – and boasts the New World’s oldest cathedral.
“There’s a whole lot of history that I think will appeal to Canadians if you combine (it) with the offer that the DR has,” Pacheco told Travel Industry Today, noting that the capital is a great gateway to the rest of the island. And for those looking for a beach, he says the airline offers a free bus transfer directly to Puerto Plata.
Connections
Arajet offers a growing list of connections through Santo Domingo to such destinations as Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile, Medellín, Cartagena, Aruba, Jamaica (Kingston), Curacao, and Saint Martin.
Launched in 2022, the airline will offer by the end of the year nearly 150 connections to 22 destinations in the 15 countries in which it will operates “enabling the power of the hub of Santo Domingo.”
And it’s a list that will continue to expand, says Pacheco, as its “north-south” customer base continues to grow. New gateways are being negotiated particularly in the US, he points out.
But why Arajet?
First, Pacheco says, is Santo Domingo’s “geographic advantage” of being centrally located in the Caribbean and between the Americas, which results in some cases in 20% less flying time – an efficiency that allows it to offer lower prices than many competitors.
“It’s a huge advantage with everything getting more expensive. And less flying means less cost and means we can give you a better price,” he says, citing what he calls the “Arajet effect,” which can mean fares prices at less than half what others offer (and resulting in them lowering fares too).
But he is quick to differentiate between Arajet’s “low-fare” model and “low-cost,” stating that the former is not simply about stimulating the market with low fares.
Rather, he says, “We care about the service; so, when you come into our aircraft you will really feel the service of the Caribbean, and the especially the Dominican, which has made us very popular with tourists… And we care about our passengers, we deeply do.”
Another advantage, he says, is the ease of connecting through Santo Domingo instead of big, congested airports like Miami, with simpler, more efficient customs and transfer times.
Pacheco says about 58% of the airline’s Canadian customers are currently flying through Santo Domingo.
Overall, he adds, Arajet has already made its mark with more than 200,000 bookings and 265,000 passengers.
Still, he says, he’s looking forward to even greater success, prompting his visit this week to Canada – a country that is the Dominican Republic’s second largest market, and which boasts a local community of 50,000 Dominicans.
“Through our efforts,” he says, “We want to win over people’s trust.”
And with service to both the DR and beyond, he adds, “That makes us a very different airline for Canadians.”
Arajet is the first low-fare airline in the Caribbean, operating from its base at Las Americas Airport in Santo Domingo. It has a new fleet of environmentally friendly Boeing 737MAX-8 aircraft that is expected to number 10 planes by the end of the year.