Arajet made its descent at the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) on 09SEP.
In partnership with the General Cinema Direction of the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean Low-Cost Carrier (LCC) invited industry partners to the screening of the Dominican film, "Pepe."
Open Jaw's Natasha McKenty attended the event hosted in the heart of Toronto's Entertainment District at the TIFF Lightbox.
"Pepe," written and directed by Dominican native Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, tells the story of a young hippopotamus who was relocated from Africa to Colombia to live in Pablo Escobar's private zoo.
After the screening, Open Jaw attended an intimate gathering where Arajet's chief communications and external affairs officer, Manuel Luna, toasted Arajet's first anniversary serving Canadians and sat down to share the airline's motivation behind attending TIFF.
"We thought that it was a very special [to] have this meet and greet between our stakeholders here in in Canada," he said.
"We believe, as an airline, we cannot limit ourselves to getting people to the beach. We also have to export our culture and part of our culture is art and music. This is part of this strategy of being more than an airliner and support Dominican Republic."
Luna told Open Jaw that on 27OCT, Punta Cana Airport (PUJ) will become Arajet's base. It has already started selling flights from Toronto Pearson (YYZ) and Montreal (YUL).
"We realized that many of our customers were [flying with Arajet to Santo Domingo] taking the bus to Punta Cana. So, why not make life easier for them and just fly to Punta Cana?
"Now, we will fly to Punta Cana, and we're still going to have the bus for the people that want to go to Santo Domingo," he said.
"And right now, we're starting the route with a sale. You can fly from Canada to Punta Cana for $33 (USD), plus taxes."
The response speaks for itself. Luna shared that the airline has already sold more than 125,000 tickets in the first 11 months.
Arajet's routes are operated on its fleet of Boeing 737 Max jets.
"Right now, we have 10 [aircraft]; we are receiving our 11th in January and expecting to finish 2025 with 15, with a total order of 45 by around 2028," Luna told Open Jaw.
On the horizon, Arajet is looking to enter the U.S. market.
"If everything goes well in the first quarter of 2025, we're just waiting for FAA approvals. It's going to have a huge impact for Arajet."
As the conversation turned back towards impact, Luna told Open Jaw that Arajet is actively invested in projects that aim to support and inspire youth in the Dominican Republic to pursue a career in aviation, including its Pilot Cadet program, My First Flight, and Pilot for a Day. Arajet takes pride in having a higher percentage of female pilots, currently sitting at 12%. For perspective, the North American average hovers around 7%.
Arajet recently announced its plan to provide flight and hotel bookings across its 23 cities in 16 countries; Luna shared that there will be more exciting news to come.
The LCC currently operates three weekly flights from Toronto (YYZ) and Montreal (YUL) to Santo Domingo (SDQ). Beginning in the fall, the flights to Punta Cana (PUJ) will also operate three times weekly.
