In recent days I used to be informed in regards to the start of operations of Arajet, which starts because the flagship low-cost airline of the Dominican Republic.
Several colleagues and tourism entrepreneurs consulted me to get my opinion on this new airline, so I made a decision to analyze it as a way to respond effectively to all of them.
I’m going to develop a context, comment on its destinations, explain what an air hub is, comment on its branding, its key pieces, and explain the the reason why I feel that Arajet might be successful.
Arajet’s fundamental interest is to make travel accessible without compromising service quality and to offer a wonderful travel experience, with direct flights to and from Santo Domingo to the Caribbean, Central and South America.
Arajet enters the Dominican market as a low-cost airline at a historic moment, nuanced by the high tourism growth within the country and with a presence in destinations with positive market trends.
Its fleet is made up of 5 Boeing 737 MAX, the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, with a capability of 189 passengers and succeeding the Boeing 737 Next Generation. Six more aircraft are expected in 2023.
In response to the Technical Vice Ministry of the Ministry of Tourism, headed by Jacqueline Mora, in its report “The recovery of Dominican tourism and the impostor syndrome,” 2022 might be the perfect yr for tourism and can end with an arrival of around 7.1 million tourists ( …) to proceed a trend around 12%-14% within the last 4 months of the yr”.
Arajet Destinations
The Arajet offer is present in the next countries and destinations:
- Aruba–Oranjestad
- Canada – Montreal and Toronto
- Colombia – Bogota, Barranquilla, Cali, and Cartagena
- Costa Rica – San Jose
- Curacao – Willemstad
- Ecuador – Guayaquil and Quito
- El Salvador–San Salvador
- Guatemala – Guatemala City
- Jamaica–Kingston
- Mexico – Mexico City, Cancun, and Monterrey
- Lima Peru
- Saint Martin–Phillipsburg
I used data from the Tourist Information System (SITUR) to acquire information on the arrival of non-resident passengers (Dominicans and foreigners) from the market covered by Arajet in the primary six months of this yr:
Variety of passengers: 648,110
Most important airports: Punta Cana, Santo Domingo, and Puerto Plata.
Average passengers monthly: 90,006.
Canada, Mexico, and Colombia concentrate 561,760 travelers, for nearly 87% of the entire passengers.
Likewise, Punta Cana covers 78.64% (507,032) of all arrivals within the referred period, followed by Santo Domingo with 9.70% (62,922). In third place is Puerto Plata with 8.10% (52,543).
If the present trend continues, Las Américas may receive some 130,000 passengers to and from these 12 destinations. If we calculate that the same amount returns on the identical flight, we’re talking about 260 thousand passengers transported.
Profiting from the potential of Santo Domingo Las Américas is where the best opportunity for growth lies, novelty, and it’s where I agree with the Founder and CEO of Arajet, Víctor Pacheco, who estimated that in about five years the airline will transport some seven million annual passengers.
How do you explain that Las Américas can go from transporting some 260 thousand passengers per yr (based on Arajet’s 12 current destinations) to 7 million?
It is rather easy. Arajet’s idea is to show Las Americas International Airport into the new Caribbean air hub.
What’s air hub?
An air hub, which is projected with Santo Domingo Las Américas, is an airport utilized by a number of airlines to pay attention passenger traffic and flight operations.
The term “hub” is comparable to the anatomy of a wheel: the middle of a wheel is the hub, from which the spokes project to the outer rim.
The hub-and-spoke system allows airlines to serve more cities with fewer planes, as they’ll funnel travelers to just a few hubs as a substitute of serving their entire list of destinations with direct flights from each airport.
Along with hubs, airlines sometimes increase service in “focus cities.” Focus cities are best understood as a smaller hub, typically serving more limited routes inside a region.
This paradigm creates economies of scale that allow an airline to serve (via an intermediate connection) city pairs that might not otherwise be economically served nonstop.
Of the ten airports with the best volume of passengers in Latin America, Arajet can have a presence in five: Mexico City, Bogotá, Cancún, Lima, and Medellín. This group mobilized nearly 100 million passengers in 2021 and the trend indicates that this figure might be exceeded.
Some examples of air hubs in the USA include the Atlanta airport, the Dallas Fort Value airport, and the Los Angeles airport, which handles a lot of the flights arriving from Asia to that country.
Having a hub has many benefits for airlines, since:
1- They will grow well beyond the bounds of their local market
2- They will offer many destinations
3- Fewer flights are needed to attach all destinations
When materialized, and making an allowance for the air traffic of all our international airports, the Dominican Republic could reach some 22-23 million passengers per yr and would change into certainly one of the countries with the best volume within the region in just a few years.
Arajet’s value proposal to serve 7 million passengers a yr is to supply the perfect rates for direct flights to and from the Dominican Republic, with good quality, good service, good security, and after all, with inexpensive prices that start at $55 one approach to $208 round trip, all taxes included.
These rates are the bottom in your complete history of national aviation, which makes all of the sense on this planet because Arajet’s business model focuses on offering low costs but with very high volume.
As well as, the Arajet CAE 25 operating license not only includes international charter flights with passengers, but in addition cargo transport, thus adding a really attractive element for corporations that need to move their goods within the continent.
The variety of passengers that Arajet is in search of entails operational challenges that require human capital with experience in successfully managing the needs and expectations of internal and external customers, negotiating contracts to realize unit costs such as airlines with significantly higher volumes, and reaching a value basis comparable to best-in-class low-cost airline.
For such purposes, Arajet hired Mr. Garret Malone last May, who has the background of getting achieved the success of Viva Colombia and Sky Airline, each low-cost airlines.
In only two years, Malone successfully established Colombia’s first low-cost airline and achieved operating profit within the second yr.
With Sky Airline in Chile, Mr. Malone made this scheduled airline the primary customer-focused low-cost airline in Latin America, with hubs in Chile and Peru.
Branding
The primary president and CEO of IBM, Thomas Watson, is the creator of a legendary phrase: “Nothing happens until a sale is made” (Nothing happens until a sale is made).
While your product could also be unique, the challenges of sales and marketing may not. Here Arajet scores a bit since its branding may be very solid because it has a particular message that’s noticeable on its various platforms.
As a specialist in digital marketing and content creator, I even have noticed that Arajet’s copywriting on its social networks, the videos, and Mr. Víctor Pacheco’s speech have a similarity that shows the extent of professionalism and sense of belonging of the corporate. company together with your brand.
The creative art of the posts comprises elements of humor, text sources that attract attention, appeal to the gastronomy of their destinations and use empathic phrases.
On this sense, it’s valid to congratulate the VP of Marketing and Sales Alvaro de Oleo, a publicist and marketer with greater than 20 years of experience within the conceptualization, development and execution of design, marketing, communication, art, education and production projects.
This creative director has led communication strategies and campaigns for national and international brands, resembling: Cerveza Presidente, Cervecería Nacional Dominicana, UNICEF, Ron Brugal, Malta Morena, Tiendas La Sirena, Banco Popular Dominicano, ARS HUMANO, Brahma, Leche Rica, Volvo , Renault, Dos Pinos, Claro, TRICOM, Castrol, amongst others.
De Oleo coordinates the work of Bakery Agency, an independent agency with offices in Texas and Tokyo, founded by the Dominican publicist and inventive Micky Ogando.
Bakery, which opened its doors within the Dominican Republic through a strategic alliance with the MOM agency, leads AraJet’s regional positioning management, campaign strategy, innovation planning, design, creation and production of promoting and digital content.
The agency has worked with world-class brands resembling Google. Nike, Smirnoff, Audi, and Bud Light.
Ogando stated on the time that “Bakery has a team that understands the culture and real people, in addition to an appetite for taking smart risks, something needed in our marketing strategy as we face today’s market.”
I consider that Alvaro and Bakery Agency are two ideal pieces for a new airline like Arajet, since they mix several very invaluable features resembling sales, marketing, strategy, and leading creative efforts, and after all the experience with local brands and international.
This is very important to focus on because sales and marketing are the first elements of any business. When you will have individuals with the experience of selling and marketing from a automobile, a beer, a vehicle lubricant, clothes, shoes, technology, and even medical insurance, this offers you the understanding that you’re going to reach your destination. After all, supported by a high quality and efficient service and product.
Within the media, a distinct energy is perceived and felt, as in the event that they already knew that they may achieve their goals. Their expressions and joy are a foretaste of the long run seen in the current.
Reasons for the success of Arajet
As a thoroughbred Dominican and a tourism journalist, I feel that Arajet has all of the variables it must position itself as the perfect airline born within the Dominican Republic.
Arajet enters the market at the perfect time for Dominican tourism in its history, where our country belongs to the highest 5% of post-pandemic tourism recovery worldwide.
The Dominican airline has the total support of the private and non-private sectors, who’re betting on a greater flow of tourists and foreign exchange for the country.
Its vision of turning the Americas into an air hub is revolutionary and it’ll have a presence within the fundamental airports within the region.
Also, its low-cost business model is incredibly attractive and it could actually compete within the international market without much effort.
As well as, they’ve a top-of-the-line fleet and secured financing from certainly one of the world’s largest private multi-asset investment firms, Bain Capital, in addition to Griffin Global Asset Management, an alternate asset management and asset leasing firm. industrial aircraft.
I feel that Arajet’s leadership in its Founder and CEO, Victor Pacheco, its operations manager, Garret Malone, its Market and Sales VP, Álvaro de Oleo, and the creative management of Micky Ogando at Bakry Agency mix the vision, experience and the know-how of selling, sales, and creativity that Arajet needed as a low-cost Dominican airline.
Arajet timing is comparable to the alignment of the planets and the universe.
All is left to say is: Vamo’ Arriba Arajet!
Creator: Jairo Mateo Candelier
Tourism journalist, digital marketing specialist, and content creator.
