Airlines Serving Dominican Republic

Great info, thanks!!!!

Two smaller regional airlines are now serving the Santo Domingo to Havana route:

Dominican Air Century from JBQ La Isabela with their 50 seater Bombadier jet aircraft

https://www.arecoa.com/aerolineas/2019/ … la-habana/

TCI Inter Caribbean Airways with their 50 seater Embraer jet aircraft

https://www.arecoa.com/aerolineas/2019/ … s-sabados/

Another airline increasing winter frequency to PUJ is Canadian airline WestJet

https://www.arecoa.com/aerolineas/2019/ … unta-cana/

I hope/wish an airline or two would make it easier to get there from the midwestern US. Last I checked, if you want to fly to STI (from Florida) the flights don't arrive until around midnight. If there's one thing I've seen repeated over and over on this forum - don't even think about driving at night! This means an overnight stay before heading to the north coast.

Flying into POP gets you there in the early afternoon, but costs several hundred dollars more per person. Making it worse, (for us at least) is that flights arriving in Florida from St. Louis don't jive with departure times to the DR - another overnight stay.

From what I saw you can't get to the Las Terranas airport unless you depart from Canada.....

The flights to/from US are a point of angst for many, including me. The only positive is if it were easy Las Terrenas would be overrun by Americans!  No bueno. LOL

We snagged the first flight of the year direct from Charlotte, US I believe - Sept 6. And it arrives at a decent hour!  3pm 

I feel your pain though  :0|

When US immigration pre check comes to Punta Cana, this will open up direct flights to many other US cities - 65 secondary US airports have been identified.

Direct Madrid - El Catey flights have started with high occupancy rates during the high season for holidays in Europe until beginning of September.

https://www.arecoa.com/destinos/2019/07 … id-samana/

Inter Caribbean are now flying from Santiago STI to Tortola direct.

https://www.arecoa.com/aerolineas/2019/ … o-tortola/

Air Canada are adding flights to PUJ this coming winter season from Quebec:

https://www.arecoa.com/aerolineas/2019/ … -invierno/

If you work it right, you can bracket Allegiant flights into FTL with American flights from Miami to STI. And sometimes, POP.

PM me for more details if you like.

Thanks Christie, this forum is invaluable to me. You are my future go-to for flight info...
There is another very nice person who has offered her help when my wife and I want to check out Las Terrenas.  And another very nice person who has offered us a personal tour of one of the International Schools near Cabarete, which may help us decide if we can move a little sooner as we have a 13 year old son.

I honestly can't wait to be in a position to help someone else down the road someday....

Starting September the low cost airline Wingo is adding a 3rd flight into Santo Domingo from Bogotá and new schedule will be monday,  wednesday and friday.

https://www.arecoa.com/aerolineas/2019/ … es-vuelos/

During the past week I had reason to use two of the Dominican airlines on a business trip to St Kitts and Nevis.

Sky High Aviation has started serving several of the Leeward islands direct from it's base in SDQ and now has a direct flight to St Kitts every Sunday, so it appears an obvious choice rather than a day long trip transisting through some other hub. And I had taken the flight previously without any issues. This time I must say the check in was less organized and they use Servis Air for that service. Probably it was more to do with the chaotic manner of island Dominicans who in general lack education and are unruly in their manner plus of course trying to get umpteen kilos of luggage  carried for no excess and arguing before finally having to repack between bags. They need to take a lesson from Air Century who precheck the bags before the customer gets to the check in counter.

The flight was without incident in the Beechcraft 1900 and was a full flight. It left 30 minutes late and made my transfer to Nevis via a scheduled water taxi in the balance. In the end I just made it to the jetty which is about 10 miles from the airport with a minute to spare and so landed in Nevis 2.5 hours after leaving Santo Domingo via a a flight, taxi and water taxi which is far better than leaving at 10am and travelling through a hub and arriving at 8.30pm.

Sky Aviation are offering a worthwhile service direct to the Leewards and that is good but they need to improve all aspects of their service to attract a wider client base.

I returned via St Martin and used Air Century for the trip from there to Santo Domingo La Isabella airport (JBQ). Air Century are using their Bombadier Jet CRJ200 for this flight. I started flying Air Century to San Juan on their Saab turbo prop aircraft when they started the regular scheduled service a few years ago and have seen them improve steadily their service which was always decent. I have flown once from La Isabella to SXM with them on the jet before. I must say, that despite having to work out of the temporary facilities in SXM airport, which is under reconstruction after Maria, all parts of the service on this route by Air Century was excellent and would put many international airlines to shame. Everything ran smoothly and the flight left and arrived on time and clearing immigration and customs at JBQ was quick and smooth. The jet aircraft is clean and well presented both inside and out and with comfortable leather seats. The Stewardess is attentive and thorough in safety inspections and routine as is the safety breifing. She was determined that the passengers in the exit seats listened to her breifing on the exit door and one passenger refused to listen and she asked politely if she wanted to be reseated but refused both briefing and relocation. But the stewardess was insistent and the uncooperative passenger got relocated. The free inflight service no longer includes free cuba libres but was efficient. All in all an excellent smooth flight from beginning to end and this Dominican airline seems to be going places.

Hello Lenoxnev,

Can you recommend an affordable, direct flight I might take to the Leeward islands if I plan to spend 2 or 3 days there?

Steverino7777 wrote:

Hello Lenoxnev,

Can you recommend an affordable, direct flight I might take to the Leeward islands if I plan to spend 2 or 3 days there?

It will depend which island you plan to visit in the Leewards:

Sint Maarten is an excellent destination served by several  airlines now directly from Santo Domingo: from SDQ - Winair (using Air Antilles aircraft) Air Caribe and  Sky Aviation and from JBQ Air Century.

St Barts, Saba and Statia will require a flight to Sint Maarten(SXM) and connection by Winair.

Anguilla now has a flight from SDQ using Sky Aviation however you have more options if you fly to SXM and either take the ferry or Winair.

St Kitts and Nevis can be reached direct at least one day a week using Sky Avaition to SKB with ferry to Nevis.

Antigua and Dominica can be reached direct on Sky from Santo Domingo.

The BVI, Tortolla can be reached direct using SKY and Inter Caribbean from Santo Domingo.

San Juan is a gateway to all Leeward islands and can be reached from Santo Domingo SDQ and JBQ, Santiago STI and Punta Cana PUJ using Jet Blue, Air Century, SKY, Seaborne and Inter Caribbean at times. Seaborne and Cape Air provide connections to the USVI. Seaborne provide connections to most Leeward islands. Another airline out of SJU is Air Sunshine to most Leeward islands. Liat used ot fly from SJU to SXM and ANU with onward connections to some Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands. There is mention of them flying from SDQ again.

Air Caribes and Air Antilles connect to the French islands from SJU and SXM. They may fly to PUJ? i'm not so clear on flights if any from PUJ to the Leewards.

Lots of options but flights tend to be pricey and not always with good connections and timetables change seasonally.

For those living on the East Coast or east of Santo Domingo, access to JBQ will be quick and easy once the remainder of the ring road is finished and that is expected before the end of the year.

Awesome feedback, thanks.

Following an enquiry about ailines to the islands from Puerto Plata, I am not aware of many services other than Inter Caribbean Airways who fly to Providenciales and seasonly apparently to San Juan.

http://intercaribbean.com/travel-tools/route-map/

Seaborne (Silver) now fly direct to San Juan from Santiago.

https://www.seaborneairlines.com/

Sky Aviation Route map:

https://skyhighdominicana.com/en/home-2/

lennoxnev wrote:

Steverino7777 wrote:

Hello Lenoxnev,

Can you recommend an affordable, direct flight I might take to the Leeward islands if I plan to spend 2 or 3 days there?

It will depend which island you plan to visit in the Leewards:

Sint Maarten is an excellent destination served by several  airlines now directly from Santo Domingo: from SDQ - Winair (using Air Antilles aircraft) Air Caribe and  Sky Aviation and from JBQ Air Century.

St Barts, Saba and Statia will require a flight to Sint Maarten(SXM) and connection by Winair.

Anguilla now has a flight from SDQ using Sky Aviation however you have more options if you fly to SXM and either take the ferry or Winair.

St Kitts and Nevis can be reached direct at least one day a week using Sky Avaition to SKB with ferry to Nevis.

Antigua and Dominica can be reached direct on Sky from Santo Domingo.

The BVI, Tortolla can be reached direct using SKY and Inter Caribbean from Santo Domingo.

San Juan is a gateway to all Leeward islands and can be reached from Santo Domingo SDQ and JBQ, Santiago STI and Punta Cana PUJ using Jet Blue, Air Century, SKY, Seaborne and Inter Caribbean at times. Seaborne and Cape Air provide connections to the USVI. Seaborne provide connections to most Leeward islands. Another airline out of SJU is Air Sunshine to most Leeward islands. Liat used ot fly from SJU to SXM and ANU with onward connections to some Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands. There is mention of them flying from SDQ again.

Air Caribes and Air Antilles connect to the French islands from SJU and SXM. They may fly to PUJ? i'm not so clear on flights if any from PUJ to the Leewards.

Lots of options but flights tend to be pricey and not always with good connections and timetables change seasonally.

For those living on the East Coast or east of Santo Domingo, access to JBQ will be quick and easy once the remainder of the ring road is finished and that is expected before the end of the year.

You forgot to Mention that Air Caraibes and Air Antillies has direct flights from Santo Domingo SDQ to Martinique FDF and Guadalupe PTP if im not wrong 2 or 3 days a week. Also Sky  sometimes do flights to Bonaire.

Good to know!, Martinique is one of the places we wanted to visit when live in DR.