Since the onset of the pandemic, the Dominican Republic has seen extraordinary visitor growth, a trend that has continued into 2023 with all-time arrival records set nearly every month. 

This winter, the country will get an even bigger lift with a new expansion in service from American Airlines. 

The world’s largest airline has is expanding flights across the Dominican Republic for the upcoming winter travel season, Caribbean Journal has learned. 

From Charlotte, American is expanding its Puerto Plata flights to daily service. 

American will also be ramping up its Charlotte-Punta Cana service to four daily flights, another boost for the Caribbean’s most popular all-inclusive destination. 

From Miami, American Airlines will be increasing its service to Santiago, with an additional daily flight for a total of two daily nonstop flights between the two cities. 

“This coming winter we’re looking forward to adding more service to the destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean that our customers want to visit,” said Jose Freig, Vice President of operations and commercial for Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America at American Airlines. “We are proud to strengthen our lead as the largest U.S. airline in the region, with more flights and seats to more destinations than any other single carrier or partnership.”

The Dominican Republic additions are part of what is a broader ramp-up in service to the Caribbean for American, which is facing increased competition in the region from carriers like JetBlue, Spirit and, most notably, Frontier Airlines, which has added more new flights to the region than any other carrier since the pandemic. 

If the Dominican Republic continues its current tourism pace, the destination could reach 8 million annual visitors this year, which would be a new record — and close to the country’s long-stated goal of topping 10 million annual visitors.