Narrowbody aircraft are increasingly pushing the range boundary, especially if airports are located on the edge of a continent or in an otherwise advantageous geographic position. They open up many new route opportunities. Thanks to Arajet, the world has a new fourth-longest Boeing 737 MAX 8 route. Significantly, it would be firmly second globally if the number of flights were considered.
Arajet: Santo Domingo to Buenos Aires
Launched on 14th November, it covers 3,734 miles (6,009 km) – longer than London Heathrow to Washington Dulles. It has a maximum block/scheduled time of 8h 15m, which includes taxi time at both airports, flight time, and a period for short delays. Flightradar24 shows that the first flight to Argentina lasted 7h 54m and 7h 46m back.
In the first nine months of 2023, the Argentine capital was Santo Domingo’s second-largest unserved South American market. Booking data shows it had about 27,000 roundtrip passengers, behind only Santiago de Chile, another recently introduced (but shorter) route.
Buenos Aires is served three times weekly and is scheduled as follows, with all times local. Like Santiago and also-served São Paulo, the times are designed around connectivity over its Dominican Republic hub.
- Santo Domingo to Buenos Aires: DM333, 17:55-03:05+1 (8h 10m block)
- Buenos Aires to Santo Domingo: DM334, 04:25-11:40 (8h 15m)
Photo: Arajet
How are its MAXs scheduled?
Scheduling can be challenging and complicated, especially given vastly different route lengths, frequencies, days of operation, slots, the need for competitive connectivity, high utilization, and more.
Working out connectivity can be more difficult still given split schedules, where different days have different flight times, as in the case of Arajet.
Usually, I’d look at a small fleet’s weekly flying in total, breaking it down per day. This helps to indicate many things, including what each flight feeds, any gaps (e.g., for planned maintenance, simply under-utilization or a buffer, or where other opportunities could be explored), utilization, and more.
Photo: Daniel Martínez Garbuno | Simple Flying
Usually, I’d use Excel, but I can’t here. Given a lack of space, the following looks at Arajet’s six MAX 8s based on two days: Thursday and Friday. While only part of the picture, it is designed to give you a sense of how its aircraft are scheduled and how things fit together.
You can see, for example, that passengers flying from Buenos Aires on Friday can connect to San Salvador, Felipe Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Cancun, and more. Passengers flying from Kingston can connect to Canada, Felipe Angeles, San Salvador, etc.
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Note: for readability, the following is only based on flights to/from Santo Domingo. Notice Santiago, DO. Aircraft/crew do not remain there for hours. Instead, they fly to Medellín (Thursday) and Bogotá (Friday), before returning to the Dominican Republic’s capital.
Thursday flying
For example, two MAX 8s leave Santo Domingo at 06:00, returning at 15:10 and 15:50 ahead of their next legs.
- Santiago, DO (06:00-06:50, 14:20-15:10); Santiago de Chile (18:00-03:00+1)
- Felipe Angeles, MX (06:00-08:25, 09:25-15:50); Lima (19:35-23:35)
- Bogotá (07:46-09:20, 10:05-14:05); Buenos Aires (17:55-03:05+1)
- Guatamala City (08:16-09:45, 10:30-16:00); São Paulo (19:20-03:35+1)
- Cancun (08:16-10:20, 11:20-15:15)
- San Jose, CR (09:00-10:00, 10:45-15:45)
Photo: Arajet
Friday flying
For example, the flight from Santiago de Chile leaves at 04:35 and arrives back in Santo Domingo at 11:35 local, enabling passengers to connect at the Dominican Republic airport.
- Santiago de Chile (04:35-11:35); San Salvador (13:25-14:40, 15:25-20:55)
- Lima (00:35-07:00); Kingston (08:00-08:30, 09:15-11:45); Toronto (13:45-17:25, 18:25-00:25+1)
- Buenos Aires (04:25-11:40); Felipe Angeles, MX (13:30-15:55, 16:55-23:20)
- São Paulo (05:25-11:35); Santiago, DO (13:05-13:50, 21:45-22:30)
- Medellín (06:00-07:20, 08:10-11:35); Montreal (13:45-17:25, 18:55-00:40+1)
- Cartagena (07:00-07:55, 08:40-11:35); Cancun (14:01-16:05, 17:05-21:00)
Where would you like Arajet to fly next in South America? Let us know in the comments.
Sources: Arajet’s website, Cirium, Google Flights, Flightradar24