Punta Cana International Airport celebrated the arrival of the first regular flight from Russia to the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, 3 November. Aeroflot flight AFL337 flew in from Sheremetyevo (SVO) airport in Moscow. Aeroflot is flying Russian visitors to the DR on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The airline flies direct from Moscow using an Airbus A330 with capacity for 280 passengers.
On Sunday, 7 November, AeroSvit Airlines also began a new flight, this time from Boryspil Airport (KBP) in Kiev. This is the main airport in Ukraine.
Transaero has been serving the Russian routes for several years now. It began its winter charter flights with arrivals on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and two flights on Thursday and Sunday, for seven Transaero flights a week from Domodedovo Airport (DME) in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In total, Punta Cana is served by nine flights a week from Moscow and one from Kiev. Russian tourists have been visiting the DR in significant numbers since 2005. There were 14,233 arrivals that year and numbers have grown steadily since then.
Year Pax %
2010 47,674*
2009 49,752 25.2
2008 39,734 85.3
2007 21,440 30.3
2006 16,459 15.6
2005 14,233
* January-September