Dominican Republic’s Sky High eyes US services with A320s

Sky High Aviation Services (DO, Santo Domingo Las Américas) is planning to launch scheduled operations between the United States and the Dominican Republic, using E190, A320-200, or A321-200 aircraft either dry- or wet-leased from a US-approved carrier.

The Dominican carrier requested the US Department of Transportation to amend its Foreign Air Carrier Permit (FACP) to include large aircraft on December 16, 2021. The carrier’s current authorisation limits it to the use of aircraft seating up to 60 passengers and with the maximum take-off weight of 18,000 pounds (8,165 kilogrammes).

According to its Operations Specifications attached to the DOT filing, Sky High Aviation Services’ current in-house fleet comprises two E145s. However, it also has a standing wet-lease agreement with Avion Express Malta (MLH, Malta Int’l) for two A321-200s, both of which are currently operating on behalf of another Dominican Republic’s carrier, Sky Cana (SNA, Santo Domingo Las Américas). Due to the lack of appropriate authorisation for Sky Cana – whose FACP only permits cargo services with small aircraft – charter services to the US are operated under the code of Air Century (Y2, Santo Domingo La Isabela).

Initially, Sky Cana planned to operate the wet-leased A321s under the code of Sky High Aviation Services. Sky High applied to the US DOT for the appropriate authorisation but subsequently withdrew the petition without any explanation in January 2021.

Sky Cana’s Chief Executive Frank Diaz told ch-aviation that the carrier was no longer cooperating with Sky High and had no plans to resume this partnership. Instead, Sky Cana would continue to use Air Century’s AOC and work towards amending its own FACP to permit in-house services to the US.