Continental Airlines announced that it would resume its Newark-Puerto Plata route daily flight. The flight resumes in June, to coincide with the summer season, the peak season of travel to the DR. The Continental flights would depart from Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Alex Santana, regional manager of Continental for the Caribbean area, said that last year the airline transported 115,420 passengers on the New York-Santo Domingo-New York route. Continental expects to transport more than 200,000 passengers to and from the DR in 2000 as a result of the new flight. Flights had a 86% load factor. He said that Continental is also offering the service of pre-check in of passengers traveling only with carry-on luggage. This permits the passenger upon arriving to the airport to go directly to Migration controls. Continental began its service to the DR ten years ago offering service on the Puerto Plata-New York frequency that later was suspended. Continental will use Boeing 737-300 equipment with capacity for 12 first class passengers, and 112 passengers in economy class. The flight will depart Newark at 8 am arriving to Puerto Plata’s Internatonal Gregorio Luperón Airport at 11:45 am. The return flight will depart Puerto Plata at 12:40 pm, arriving to Newark at 4:30 pm. (14 January 2000)
