At 6:47 local time, the inaugural flight of Arajet, the new Dominican low-cost airline that promises to revolutionise the airline market in the Caribbean, took off from Santo Domingo’s Las Americas International Airport (SDQ).
This first operation, which landed in Barranquilla at 7:42 local time, was carried out with Boeing 737 MAX 8 registration HI-1082, which was received by the company in July and was christened with the name «Ojos Indígenas (Indigenous Eyes)». Arajet has three other aircraft of the model and an order for up to 35 Boeing 737 MAX 200, the high-density version of which it will be the first customer in the Americas.
Through a publication on its social networks, Arajet informed that today’s inaugural operation will be followed on Saturday 17 by the opening of scheduled flights: a modification to the schedule previously announced, which included another flight this Thursday between Santo Domingo and Cali, and a Friday flight to Aruba.
On Saturday 17 again, Arajet will fly again to Barranquilla and Cali and will perform its inaugural flights to San Salvador and St. Maarten. The company will complete a first busy week on Sunday with inaugural flights to Cartagena, Curaçao and Lima. But considering the changes, this remains to be confirmed.
On the Youtube channel of the Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport of Barranquilla you could follow live the arrival of the inaugural flight of Arajet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx0Cn4pRdwE
Brief history of Arajet
Born as DW Dominican Wings in 2014, the company operated several charter flights with Avion Express Airbus A320 aircraft under wet leasing. In 2018 it changed its corporate name to Flycana, maintaining DW Dominican Wings’ air operator’s certificate, to become an ultra-low-cost carrier.
In 2020 a new airline emerged: SkyCana. In order not to cause confusion in the market, Flycana was forced to change its name to Arajet. In March, Arajet had also surprised by announcing an order for up to 35 Boeing 737-8200s, the high-density version of the 210-passenger MAX 8, the first American airline to do so.
The company’s intention is to establish a continental hub in Santo Domingo to counterbalance Copa Airlines’ hub in Panama and Viva’s fledgling hub in Medellín.
In June it had requested authorization for 23 initial destinations, out of a total of 116 routes requested from the Dominican Civil Aviation Board.
