By the Caribbean Journal staff

American Airlines is ramping up its flight service to the Caribbean’s most popular destination.

The carrier will soon be launching a pair of new nonstop routes to the Dominican Republic, with service from both Charlotte and Dallas-Fort Worth to Santo Domingo.

The new routes will both begin operating on June 8, with service running every week on Saturdays.

Santo Domingo is seeing a significant jump in airlift.

It’s no coincidence that American is the latest carrier to expand its service to the Dominican Republic’s capital, which the country’s officials are heavily promoting as its next big tourism pole.

Indeed, in the last year, a slew of carriers have launched new routes to Santo Domingo, including JetBlue, which now operates daily flights from Newark; and rapidly expanding low-cost carrier Spirit, which now runs flights from Orlando to the capital.

The planned launch comes as American Airlines also expanded its service from Miami to Santo Domingo at the end of last year.

Inside a room at the Billini hotel.

So what makes Santo Domingo a hot destination right now?

It’s a bustling, energetic capital, with perhaps the most beautiful historic quarter on the region, the Colonial Zone, along with large portfolio of hotels, an impressive cultural and arts offering and a deepening shopping scene to boot.

The Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo.

It’s even home to the first-ever cable car system in the Caribbean.

WHERE TO STAY

While its flagship hotel is almost certainly the spectacular JW Marriott, if you’re looking for a culture-filled weekend getaway, you can’t go wrong in one of the charming boutique hotels in the Colonial Zone, led by the Casas del XVI and the Billini.

For a more traditional, but equally historic experience, try the Hodelpa Nicolas de Ovando, set on the Caribbean’s oldest street.

— CJ