US major United Airlines has announced plans to operate flights between its New York hub at Newark Liberty International Airport and Santiago in the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2014. The Star Alliance member is making an official application to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for rights to serve the international route and is now awaiting final regulatory approval.

United said it intends to introduce a daily service, utilising a Boeing 737-900 aircraft, leaving Newark Liberty at 9:00am and arriving in Santiago at 12:55pm. The return flight will depart Santiago at 1:50pm, arriving at Newark Liberty at 5:55 pm. The service will be timed to provide roundtrip connectivity with Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

United offers flights from Newark to Santo Domingo, Punta Cana and Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, while on a seasonal basis it offers services from Chicago and Washington, D.C., to Punta Cana. Santiago, the second largest metropolis in the Dominican Republic, located in the north-central region of the Republic known as Cibao valley, is already linked to New York via the flights of Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways from John F Kennedy International Airport, while the latter recently announced its own plans to serve the Newark – Santiago market.

JetBlue Airways plans to introduce its link to Santiago, its first route to the Dominican Republic from Newark Liberty International Airport, from May 1, 2014. This will mark the return of direct air services between Newark and Santiago and will end the current monopoly of United Airlines on flights from the New Jersey airport to the Dominican Republic, the ninth largest economy in Latin America and the second largest economy in the Caribbean and Central American region.

According to MIDT data, an estimated 89,000 bi-directional O&D passengers travelled between Newark and Santiago when the route was last served by Continental Airlines in 2008. In previous years annual scheduled demand had reached as high as 126,000 passengers, but has now fallen to below 1,000 with the absence of direct air services.