Dominicana - History

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 of America, Puerto Rico and Spain. The initial fleet consisted of Douglas DC-3 and DC-6 aircraft. During the 1950s, Dominicana launched a domestic route network to places like Puerto Plata, La Romana and Santiago de los Caballeros, acquiring Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando and Aviation Traders Carvair airplanes. In the 1960s, Dominicana renewed its fleet with the more modern Douglas DC-8, DC-9 and Boeing 727. 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 Boeing 747 aircraft to European destinations like Madrid and Frankfurt.

At the end of the decade, the airline's economic situation worsened due to a poorly led management and the heavy maintenance costs of its ageing fleet. Subsequently, the fleet and network were scaled back, leaving only the original routes like New York, Miami and San Juan. In an effort to save costs, Dominica began to operate leased aircraft (mostly Boeing 727, but also an Airbus A300) instead of owned ones. Nonetheless, the financial situations further worsened into the 1990s, which coincided with a negative customer reputation (like lost or delayed luggage). In order to be able to operate newer aircraft which required less maintenance expenses, and to cut crew costs, Dominicana leased Boeing 737-300s and a Boeing 757-200 (including the flight crews) from Mexican low-cost airline TAESA. Further aircraft were leased from Express One International, Atlantic Aviation and Carnival Air Lines. During Christmas of 1994, many Dominicana VFR passengers got stranded when the airline was not able to provide the necessary funding for operating the aircraft the passengers had already been booked on. As a consequence to this abysmal publicity, in early 1995 the government of the Dominican Republic decided to shut down the airline. Originally only planned as a temporarily measure, the company never became operational again and was officially dissolved in 1999.