JetBlue strengthens its dominance in the DR, its largest market outside the U.S.
Forty percent of flights departing from the Dominican Republic to the United States are operated by JetBlue, as the airline operates 33 daily flights between four airports in the country: Las Americas, Punta Cana, Puerto Plata and Santiago.
In total, the airline operates some 990 flights per month spread across six U.S. airports, while 24 of the 33 daily departures are to New York City and Boston.
In this regard, Robin Hayes, CEO of the airline, said that 8% of all flights they work with arrive from the Dominican Republic, making the country their largest market outside the U.S. Hayes said they are currently looking to increase their strength, services and operations here.
He said they are currently looking to increase their strength, services and operations in the country and to that end have taken several steps to improve operations in the Dominican Republic.
According to Diario Libre, he said that he is looking to directly supervise the service in order to identify improvements that need to be implemented.
“The most important measure they have taken is to facilitate that pilots and crew members of the flights have a place to sleep and rest in the Dominican Republic so that they can fly the next day,” he added.
Another of the measures will be to add more time between the departure time of one flight and another, so that passengers have more space to get off the plane, pick up their bags and board the next flight calmly.
“Before, the crew would travel to Puerto Rico or New York so they could take their rest hours,” Hayes said.