Market transformation
Plaza de España in Santo Domingo.
Tourism images courtesy of the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Tourism.
US low-cost carriers JetBlue and Spirit are making their marks on the Caribbean. Lucy Siebert speaks to Aerodom CEO, Andrew O’Brian, about the Dominican Republic’s changing airline landscape.
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n the words of the CEO of Aerodom, the Dominican Republic’s private airport operator, the Caribbean country’s airline market is currently experiencing “a bit of a shake-up” due to the phenomenal growth of the US low-cost carriers, JetBlue and Spirit.
Andrew O’Brian, Aerodom CEO, explains that these two airlines, along with a handful of other carriers from the Americas, have played an important role in transforming a market that had
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been dominated by American Airlines for over 40 years.
That changed six years ago when JetBlue started its fi rst service from New York to the capital Santo Domingo and Santiago.
“American used to be the number one carrier into the Dominican Republic and it really dominated and controlled the ethnic Dominican market. However, American has lost some market share to JetBlue over the past fi ve years. JetBlue has very good
pricing, particularly on the New York–Santo Domingo route, meaning they have become the airline of choice for the ethnic community living in the US.”
JetBlue – leading carrier Now, JetBlue is the leading carrier to the Dominican Republic (measured in ASKs), says Dave Clark, the airline’s director of network planning. It operates an average of between 15–20 fl ights a day, rising to between
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