Dominicana de Aviación


Compañía Dominicana de Aviación, usually shortened to Dominicana, was an airline based in the Dominican Republic and served as the flag carrier for the country.

History

Dominicana was established in 1944 in an effort to create a national airline aiming at the large number of Dominican citizens who emigrated to the United States, Puerto Rico and Spain. The initial fleet consisted of the Douglas C-47 and DC-6. During the 1950s, Dominicana launched a domestic route network to places such as Puerto Plata, La Romana and Santiago de los Caballeros, acquiring Curtiss C-46 Commando and Aviation Traders Carvair airplanes. In 1960, the airline was operating international nonstop passenger service between Ciudad Trujillo and Miami with Douglas DC-4 propliners and also nonstop between Ciudad Trujillo and San Juan, Puerto Rico with Douglas DC-3 and Curtiss C-46 prop aircraft. Later during the 1960s, Dominicana renewed its fleet with the Douglas DC-8, McDonnell Douglas DC-9 and Boeing 727 jetliners. The route network was further expanded, with more destinations in the Americas and the Caribbean during the 1970s. At its height in the 1980s, Dominicana operated the Boeing 747 to European destinations like Madrid, Milan, and Frankfurt.
At the end of the decade, the airline's economic situation worsened due to poor management, lack of innovation or cost-cutting culture, and the heavy maintenance costs of its aging fleet. More importantly, on the revenue side, government employees also sought to fly non-revenue, given the typical patronage in the Dominican Republic with many flights full of them often displacing paying passengers. Subsequently, the fleet and network were scaled back, leaving only the original routes like New York, Miami, Caracas, and San Juan. In an effort to save on maintenance costs, Dominicana began to operate leased aircraft. The financial situation further worsened into the 1990s, which coincided with a negative customer reputation. In 1994, now also faced with Cat1 restrictions in the US, Dominicana wet-leased a Boeing 737-300 and a Boeing 757-200 from Mexican low-cost airline TAESA. Further aircraft were wet-leased from Capitol Air Express
Express One International, Atlantic Aviation and Carnival Air Lines. During Christmas of 1994, many Dominicana VFR passengers were stranded at JFK, MIA, and SJU when the airline was unable to provide necessary funding to lessors for heavily-booked Christmas flights. As a consequence of the outrage, in early 1995 the government of the Dominican Republic decided to shut down the airline. While the shutdown was originally only planned as a temporary measure to get re-organized, the company never became operational again, and was dissolved in 1999. The vice president at the time was quoted saying that "Dominicans can fly APA International" which was another "local" airline that benefited handsomely from Dominicana's demise. While several attempts have been made to privatize the airline, no efforts came to fruition. American Airlines and later JetBlue dominated the market and the business case for a new Dominican flag carrier is relatively weak given the investment that would be required and the debts that would have to be honored in order to use the Dominicana name.

Destinations

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Fleet

Over the years, Dominicana operated the following aircraft types:
AircraftTotalIntroducedRetiredNotes
Airbus A300B4219921993Leased from Conair of Scandinavia
ATL-98A219691978One written off as Flight 401
Boeing 707-320119711972Leased from Pan Am
Boeing 707-320C119721972Leased from Pan Am
Boeing 707-320C119841994
Boeing 727-100519721994
Boeing 727-200919751999
Boeing 737-40011994Wet leased from TAESA
Boeing 747-100119851987
Boeing 757-20011994Wet leased from TAESA
Curtiss C-46 Commando819481969
Douglas C-47 Skytrain419471974Version of the Douglas DC-3
Douglas C-54 Skymaster219581977
Douglas DC-4119731975
Douglas DC-6B419621994
Douglas DC-8-43219781981
Lockheed L-188C Electra119701971Leased from American Flyers Airline
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15119681970Leased from McDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32119691970Crashed into the sea
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10119841985Leased from Arrow Air
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30119951996Leased from TAESA
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40119841984Leased from Jet 24

Livery

The most common Dominicana livery consisted of a metallic silver fuselage, with red and blue cheatlines going all the way from the cockpit to the tail painting, representing the colors in the Dominican flag. The Dominicana titles were written in black letters above the passenger windows.

Accidents and incidents