Arajet

Is Arajet safe?

Yes, on the record so far. Arajet, the Dominican low-cost airline, has flown since 2022 without an accident, and every aircraft it operates is a Boeing 737 MAX 8 delivered from that year on. It passed the IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit that IATA membership requires, and the Dominican Republic sits in the FAA's Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary. The catch is time: four years of flying is not enough to prove much either way. We score Arajet 84, level with JetSMART and just below Copa, the network airline it competes with for Caribbean and Andean travellers.

A short record, read with care

An airline that has never crashed after four years has shown that its basics work. It has not shown that it can go twenty years without a loss, which is what a high accident score is meant to reflect. So we give Arajet 88 for its accident record, the score we give every young airline with a clean history, not the low to mid 90s that older airlines with long clean records earn.

The Aviation Safety Network database holds no Arajet event at all. The one occurrence we found in other records was on Christmas Day 2024: flight DM5801 from Toronto to Punta Cana touched its tail on the runway as it rotated. The crew stopped the climb at 7,000 feet and returned to Toronto. Canada's TSB reported that a marker on the tail skid showed only minor contact and no structural damage, and the aircraft flew the route about 15 hours later.

Tail strikesTail strikeWhen the tail of an aircraft touches the runway during take-off or landing, usually because the nose was raised too far or too early.More in the glossary on take-off usually come from rotating too early or too fast, or from wrong weight figures. One light contact in four years is not a pattern. But a thin record is not the same as a clean one, especially when the home investigation board publishes few reports, so incidents score 78, not 90.

How strong is Dominican oversight?

Good enough for the US market. The FAA rates the Dominican Republic Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary, meaning its civil aviation authority (IDAC) meets ICAO standards, which is why Arajet can fly to the United States. Arajet is also on IATA's member list, and IATA requires members to pass the IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary operational safety audit every two years.

What lowers the score to 80, below Chile's and Panama's regulators, is how little the system publishes. The Dominican accident board (CIAA) releases few final reports, and we score FAA Category 1 states with IOSA at 80 rather than 84 when that is the case. The IDAC and the CIAA are also small agencies that had not overseen a home jet airline of this size before 2022, and they have not yet had to show how they handle a serious event at Arajet.

How new is the fleet?

Very new. Arajet flies one type, the 737 MAX 8, with 16 in service at the end of May 2026 and a 17th due by the end of the year. Five more come on lease from BOC Aviation in 2026 and 2027. The company does not publish an average age, but every aircraft was delivered in 2022 or later. One type means one set of pilot training, one parts store and one maintenance programme.

The MAX's history worries some passengers. Its flight control software and pilot training were changed before it returned to service in late 2020, and Arajet's first flights came after that. A single-type fleet does mean that a type-wide inspection order, like the MAX 9 door-plug checks in 2024 (which did not apply to the MAX 8), can ground a large share of the airline at once.

Where does Arajet fly?

From Santo Domingo and Punta Cana to more than 28 destinations in 15 countries: the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America as far as Buenos Aires and Rosario. In Colombia it serves Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena.

The network has two challenges. The hubs lie in the path of Atlantic hurricanes from June to November, and summer afternoons bring thunderstorms. In the Andes, Bogotá at 2,600 metres and Medellín at 2,100 metres sit among mountains, where thin air lengthens take-off runs and bad weather closes in fast. Toronto in winter adds snow and de-icing. None of this is unusual for the region, and the environment score of 72 matches JetSMART's.

Flying Arajet: what to check

• Hurricane season. From June to November, check the National Hurricane Center forecast before flying to or through the Dominican Republic, and expect cancellations to come early when a storm approaches. Rebook rather than wait at the airport.
• Andean connections. On routes to Bogotá and Medellín, keep your belt fastened whenever you are seated: mountain turbulence often arrives without warning.
• New routes. Arajet adds routes each year. A brand-new route can be cut or retimed, so book flexible connections if you change to another airline.

See our Dominican Republic page for safety on the ground at both hubs.

How we scored it

The new 737 MAX fleet (92) and a clean accident record (88, our score for young airlines with no losses) carry Arajet. Oversight scores 80: FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary and IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary, but a small system that publishes few reports. The thin incident record (78) and a hurricane-exposed network with Andean airports (72) hold it back. Overall 84.