Dominican Carrier Launches Kingston Flights

Dominican Republic carrier Arajet launched service from Santo Domingo to Kingston, Jamaica on Monday, promising service that will cut “cost as well as travel time” between the Caribbean countries from as much as 20 hours to one hour 10 minutes, said Jamaica Ministry of Tourism officials in a statement.

The low-fare airline operates two non-stop, roundtrip weekly flights between Las Américas International Airport in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo and Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport.

Arajet launched operations in September as a low-cost airline, initially offering 43 routes flying to Costa Rica, Colombia and Jamaica. The carrier is expected to transport seven million passengers annually, said Luis Abinader, the Dominican Republic’s president, in local media reports earlier this year.

“Air connectivity is the single most important factor in growing visitor arrivals and building tourism,” said Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s minister of tourism. “Therefore, this partnership is key to building the infrastructure needed to improve convenient flight options within the Caribbean and Latin American region.”

“Jamaica is on track to attract more than three million visitor arrivals for the full year 2022,” added Donovan White, Jamaica’s director of tourism. “We are certain that Arajet will be yet another positive development to help us achieve our goals.”

Earlier this month, Jamaica hosted the first of Frontier Airlines’ inaugural flights between Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport and Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport.

The non-stop Frontier flights operate twice weekly; the carrier launched service into Kingston in May with non-stop flights operating three times weekly from Miami. Frontier Airlines also offers three weekly non-stop flights to Montego Bay from Atlanta and Orlando.