Arajet

If you look at the taxiways in Miami, Newark or Punta Cana, you have been seeing a newcomer for some time now: Arajet. The airline from the Dominican Republic only launched in 2022 and is already one of the most eye-catching low-cost airlines in the region. For spotters it is exciting for two reasons: the fleet is small and entirely uniform, and every aircraft carries its own name. Here you will learn where Arajet comes from, what the fleet looks like and where you can run into it.

Arajet at a glance

Arajet is a low-cost airline from the Dominican Republic based in Santo Domingo. Its hubs are Las Américas Airport at the gates of the capital and Punta Cana in the east of the island, the country’s big vacation destination. Founder and CEO is Víctor Pacheco Méndez, who likes to describe the airline’s goal with the formula of “democratizing” the skies over Latin America – that is, making flying affordable for more people.

What is special about the business model: Arajet is not just an airline for vacationers and for the large Dominican community in North America. Santo Domingo also serves as a connecting point between North America, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. For a low-cost airline that is rather unusual – most budget carriers rely on pure point-to-point connections like Ryanair. Arajet, by contrast, uses the island’s central location, much as Copa Airlines does with Panama City as a classic network airline.

Arajet has grown fast: in September 2025, about 700 people worked for the airline, and the network now covers about 30 destinations between Canada and Argentina. Arajet does not belong to an alliance.

From Dominican Wings to Arajet

Arajet’s story begins with another brand. Dominican Wings received its air operator certificate at the end of 2014 and initially flew charters. In May 2015 the first aircraft arrived, an Airbus A320. In 2018 the company announced it would switch to scheduled ultra-low-cost-style flights, but the big restart came only a few years later.

In September 2021 it became known that Dominican Wings would become Arajet. Backers reportedly include the investment firm Bain Capital and the aircraft financier Griffin Global Asset Management. President Luis Abinader stressed at the time that predominantly Dominican capital stood behind the airline. At the end of 2021, the country’s aviation authority approved thirty new international routes – a solid basis for an airline that did not yet have a single aircraft.

On March 3, 2022, the first jet landed in Santo Domingo: a Boeing 737 MAX 8 registered HI-1026 and named “Pico Duarte”. Eleven days later, on March 14, 2022, Arajet was officially presented. In connection with the launch, a Boeing order for 20 737 MAX aircraft with options for 15 more also became known. Arajet began scheduled service in 2022.

As early as 2023, Arajet was named the world’s best new airline at the World Aviation Summit. How important the codes from the Dominican Wings era remain today you notice on the tracker: the ICAO code DWI and the callsign DOMINICAN still date from that phase.

Codes and callsigns

• IATA code DM: appears in the flight number, on departure boards and in booking systems.
• ICAO code DWI: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on most flight trackers.
• Callsign DOMINICAN: how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

An obvious abbreviation like “ARJ” won’t lead you to Arajet on the tracker. The ICAO code DWI is the legacy of Dominican Wings – a nice example of how codes often outlive brand names. How IATA and ICAO codes relate is explained in the article IATA and ICAO codes explained; where callsigns come from is shown in the post on airline callsigns and their history.

The fleet: only Boeing 737 MAX 8

Arajet consistently relies on a single type: the Boeing 737 MAX 8. That lowers costs for training, maintenance and spare parts and is typical for low-cost airlines – Southwest Airlines and Flair Airlines also fly almost only 737s.

Type	Number (as of mid-2026)	Seats	Spotter tip
Boeing 737 MAX 8	16	185 (8 forward, 177 economy)	Only type in the fleet, ICAO type code B38M
Boeing 737 MAX (2022 order)	20 ordered, 15 options	–	Variant stated differently depending on the source

At the end of May 2026, Arajet took delivery of its 16th aircraft. In early June 2026, the airline said it expected 17 aircraft by year-end and stressed that its growth plans were on track despite the known delivery delays at Boeing. The first ten jets joined the fleet between March 2022 and June 2024. Five more 737 MAX 8s will be provided by lessor BOC Aviation in 2026 and 2027. How such leasing models work you can read in the article Aircraft leasing explained.

There are differing statements about the 2022 order: some sources name the densely configured 737-8-200, others the 737 MAX in general. In scheduled service you still see the regular MAX 8 with 185 seats. The manufacturer is in any case Boeing.

How to recognize a 737 MAX 8

Since Arajet flies only one type, identifying the type is easy. Still, it pays to know the MAX’s features – because at airports like Miami or Toronto there are many older Boeing 737-800s from other airlines alongside.

At Arajet, the left column always applies – every aircraft in the fleet is a MAX. How to reliably tell all generations of the 737 apart is shown in the guide Telling the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart.

How to recognize Arajet

The basic design is simple: a light fuselage with purple accents and the Arajet titles. Because all aircraft are the same type, two details mainly help you tell them apart: the registration and the name.

Registration: Arajet jets are registered in the Dominican Republic and carry the prefix HI. The first jet is HI-1026, the tenth aircraft HI1101. How registrations are structured and why many airlines register their aircraft abroad is explained in the articles Understanding aircraft registrations and Offshore registrations in leasing.

Names: Arajet christens every aircraft after a protected area or natural destination of the Dominican Republic. The series began with “Pico Duarte”, named after the country’s highest mountain. Others that followed include:

• Valle Nuevo
• Jaragua
• Ojos Indígenas
• Los Tres Ojos
• Isla Saona
• Lago Enriquillo
• Laguna Redonda
• Bahía de las Águilas
• Los Haitises

For collectors that is a stroke of luck: with a fleet of this size, it is realistic to get every single Arajet aircraft in front of your lens at some point.

The route network

Arajet connects the Dominican Republic with destinations across the Americas. According to the route overview on Wikipedia, these include:

Region	Example destinations
Canada	Toronto Pearson, Montreal
USA and Puerto Rico	Miami, Newark, Boston, Chicago O’Hare, Orlando-Sanford, San Juan
Mexico and Central America	Cancún, Mexico City (Felipe Ángeles Airport), Guatemala City, San Salvador, San José (Costa Rica)
Caribbean	Aruba, Curaçao, Kingston, Sint Maarten
South America	Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, Quito, Guayaquil, Lima, Santiago de Chile, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Córdoba

Arajet has discontinued individual routes such as Barranquilla, Cali, Monterrey or Santiago de los Caballeros in its home country. Montevideo is announced for March 2027. So the network is moving – check the current schedule before every spotting trip.

The leap into the US

For a long time, the US market was closed to Arajet. Entry became possible through an open skies agreement between the Dominican Republic and the US and through adjustments to aviation law with which the country kept its Category 1 rating from the US Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA. In April 2025, Arajet flew to Miami for the first time, followed in June by San Juan and Newark. With the Newark–Santo Domingo route, according to the airline, a Dominican airline flew nonstop between New York and Santo Domingo for the first time in over three decades. Boston, Chicago O’Hare and Orlando-Sanford are now also part of the network.

New York in particular is a key market for Arajet: the largest Dominican community outside the home country lives there.

Spotting Arajet

Arajet does not fly to Europe – so you won’t see it in Germany. But if you are in North America or the Caribbean, the chances are good.

• Santo Domingo-Las Américas (SDQ): the main hub with the most Arajet traffic.
• Punta Cana (PUJ): second hub and vacation airport, where you see Arajet alongside many leisure airlines from North America and Europe.
• Miami: At Miami Airport you meet Arajet alongside a wealth of other Caribbean and Latin American airlines. Tips on the spots are in the guide Plane spotting in Miami.
• Newark: At Newark Liberty Airport, Arajet has been landing since June 2025.
• Toronto: At Toronto Pearson Airport, too, Arajet is part of the mix.
• Chicago and Boston: In Chicago, the guide Plane spotting at Chicago O’Hare helps you; in Boston, Castle Island is a well-known spot.
• Sint Maarten: The classic among Caribbean spots is Maho Beach. An Arajet MAX flying low over the beach is a shot of rarity value.

Because many routes are served only a few times a week, good planning pays off: check arrival time, weather and runway direction in use before you set off. How to gauge the landing direction is shown in the guide to the runway direction in use at an airport.

Context: Arajet among the Americas’ low-cost airlines

On the American double continent, Arajet is one of many young low-cost airlines. In comparison, a few points stand out:

• Uniform Boeing fleet: Many Latin American budget carriers like Volaris or JetSMART fly the Airbus A320neo family. Arajet, by contrast, relies on the 737 like Wingo and GOL.
• Connecting model: Instead of flying only vacation routes, Arajet uses Santo Domingo as a node between North and South America.
• Caribbean home market: In the region, Arajet competes with Caribbean Airlines, among others, and with US airlines like JetBlue, which have served the Dominican Republic intensively for years.

Common mix-ups

• Taking DWI for a typo – the ICAO code comes from Dominican Wings and belongs to Arajet today.
• Classifying Arajet as a leisure airline – Arajet flies scheduled service in the low-cost model and also uses Santo Domingo as a connecting point.
• Taking the flag MAX for a government aircraft – HI1101 “Los Haitises” is a perfectly ordinary Arajet scheduled aircraft.
• Logging a MAX 8 as a 737-800 – serrated engine trailing edges and split-tip winglets indicate the MAX.
• Expecting Arajet in Europe – the airline flies only within the Americas and the Caribbean.

Conclusion

Arajet is one of the most exciting young airlines in the Americas: emerged from Dominican Wings in 2022, with an all-737 MAX 8 fleet, a network from Canada to Argentina and, since 2025, a presence in the US too. For spotters it is an ideal collecting project – the fleet is manageable, every aircraft has its own name, and the flag livery provides a clear highlight.