Reef Jet

NALs

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This is a tiny Dominican airline flying mostly tourists from Punta Cana to Bahía de las Águilas, Samaná, Santo Domingo... Now they started to fly to Santiago too.

They claim they are the first Dominican leisure airline.


 

cavok

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I doubt they're using a jet for flights within the DR. Not economical. It looks like a Cessna 402 in the foto. They carry about 8 people.
 

NALs

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They use a jet that carries 9 people.

They could develop a model in addition to the current one of using tourists to fly them to specific places in the DR from Punta Cana. The company could try reaching an agreement with either Arajet, Sky High and/or Air Century (preferably all three) to offer domestic flights to their customers. Right now Arajet started using buses to transport foreign tourists that arrive in SDQ via their airplanes but whose final destination in reality is Punta Cana. With Reef Jet, Arajet can bring the foreigners to SDQ and Reef Jet takes them on the last leg from SDQ to PUJ and back, saving them on the 2 hour or so land trip. With an agreement, the tourists should be anle to buy their Arajet and Reef Jet tickets at the same time as it would be offered as a package.

The one thing that Reef Jet has to do is fly with slightly bigger airplanes, but depending if Arajet creates enough demand for their service. They need to offer similar levels of comfort as the buses Arajet is currently using, though the fact they can get to PC much faster than a bus gives them an edge.

They are seeing if there is enough local demand to fly within the DR (not counting foreign tourists.) Good luck with that. As a general rule of thumb, most Dominicans are afraid of flying. Part of what calmns them is that airlines flying from the DR to other countries outside the Caribbean tend to use mid to large airplanes. Good luck putting most Dominicans in small airplanes. There are a few, but the keyword is few.

You can say any airplane is safer than any land vehicle, especially in the DR. Try explaining that to people. That's like trying to explain to people that there has been a decrease in crime. Might as well talk to wall since you will get just as far.
 

cavok

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The operating costs and fuel burn of a small jet compared to the piston engine prop in the video are much higher. You don't save any time on short flights either. They're going to have to charge premium prices to make that work. It sounds like a pretty dumb idea to me.
 
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I bet they do OK.
Long overdue.

A year ago I indicated that the time might be right for an intra-island airline. Some have tried and all have eventually abandoned it. Hopefully there is enough business to sustain them.

They are using Cessna 402 and 402c. They are old but reliable and would seem a perfect fit to get started. If business warrants they could purchase Cessna Caravans (slightly larger capacity) but single engine.

I certainly would have used them as I shuttled between Santiago/Santo Domingo/Punta Cana.

The prices certainly look reasonable enough...........at least for the moment. $100 one way from STI/PUJ is a great value.

Good luck to them.


Respectfully,
Playacaribe2
 

lifeisgreat

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The operating costs and fuel burn of a small jet compared to the piston engine prop in the video are much higher. You don't save any time on short flights either. They're going to have to charge premium prices to make that work. It sounds like a pretty dumb idea to me.
The company is called reef jet, the planes are propeller..
 
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The company is called reef jet, the planes are propeller..

To be fair, there are prop jets.

But to your point, none of the Cessna’s they currently operate are classified as prop jets.

And the rub against the Cessna’s they do use involve a collapsing nose gear….which is exactly what happened here…..usually preventable with routine inspection/maintenance.

Respectfully,
Playacaribe2
 

lifeisgreat

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To be fair, there are prop jets.

But to your point, none of the Cessna’s they currently operate are classified as prop jets.

And the rub against the Cessna’s they do use involve a collapsing nose gear….which is exactly what happened here…..usually preventable with routine inspection/maintenance.

Respectfully,
Playacaribe2
It seems they new front gear wasn’t locked in by long delay of dropping front and props weren’t spinning..props to pilot pun intended:)
 
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It seems they new front gear wasn’t locked in by long delay of dropping front and props weren’t spinning..props to pilot pun intended:)

To your point, with both engines shut down and the plane effectively on a glide, coupled with someone there actually filming it…..the pilot likely communicated to the tower that the nose gear indicator gave a warning that it was not locked in the down position.

Glad everyone walked away ok.

Respectfully,
Playacaribe2
 
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JD Jones

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Looked like a really good front gear up landing to me
 

PJT

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The company is called reef jet, the planes are propeller..
It could be explained, the Jet in the name of the company is used as a verb not a noun. Jet meaning to zoom, fly, soar, and etcetera, rather than aircraft type. Maybe the authors of the company wanted use the Jet label to get attention.

Regards,

PJT
 

NALs

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That's assuming Reef Jet will always use propeller airplanes.