The Dominican Republic has summoned representatives of JetBlue to discuss concerns over the mistreatment of passengers and delays to the carrier’s operations. Marte Piantini, President of the Junta de Aviacíon Civil (JAC) of the Dominican Republic, is concerned about recent reports of passenger mistreatment and delays on JetBlue flights.
Marte Piantini is seeking to learn more about JetBlue’s plans to avoid delays to air operations in the Dominican Republic and avoid putting passengers in uncomfortable situations due to the delays.
JetBlue is one of many carriers flying into the Dominican Republic, but it has faced some operational issues. For example, looking at RadarBox.com data from flight 1568 from Punta Cana (PUJ) to New York (JFK), which has flown daily since July 5th, has landed on time (defined as within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival time) on only five occasions.
Another flight, B6173, from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Punta Cana, landed on time in Punta Cana only ten times since the start of July, according to RadarBox.com data. Another flight, B61830, from Santo Domingo (SDQ) to Boston (BOS), has not landed on time even once since July 1st, according to data from RadarBox.com.
JetBlue offered details regarding its operations in the Dominican Republic. Two major challenges the carrier noticed were bad summer weather, and additional paperwork due to the testing requirement. A spokesperson for JetBlue indicated the following:
“Several weeks of severe weather and thunderstorms on the U.S. east coast did result in flight delays at many airports, as the bad weather required runway closures, airport ground stops, and diversions. In the Dominican Republic, our service primarily connects to east coast cities in the United States where the weather has created problems.”
