Arajet has quietly reinstated one of its most useful South American links: a direct service between Guayaquil in Ecuador and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. According to the airline, the first flights back ran at 100% occupancy — a decent signal that demand never really went away.
The schedule is simple to remember. Flies out of Punta Cana towards Guayaquil on Mondays and Fridays, with the return leg leaving Ecuador on Tuesdays and Saturdays. That gives Ecuadorian holidaymakers — and anyone connecting through — a straightforward four-day or longer break window in the Caribbean without touching a US or European hub.
What makes the route more interesting than a typical beach run is what happens after Punta Cana. Arajet is positioning itself as a budget connector for the Americas, and passengers from Guayaquil can continue on the same ticket style to Cancún, Miami, Orlando or San Juan, Puerto Rico. For Ecuadorians, that's effectively a workaround for some expensive or awkward transcontinental itineraries.
The numbers back up the decision. Ecuador ranks among the Dominican Republic's top 15 source markets, sending roughly 67,600 visitors in 2025 — up 4% year on year. Arajet's communications vice president José Cabrera framed the relaunch as proof of commitment to the Ecuadorian market, and the airline now serves 30 destinations across the region with more than 4 million passengers carried since launch.
For travellers, the practical takeaway is cheap-ish access to the eastern Dominican Republic, home to Punta Cana's all-inclusive strip, plus Bávaro's beaches and day trips to Saona and Hoyo Azul. And if you're an Ecuadorian planning a US trip, it's worth pricing the two-hop option via Punta Cana against flying north directly — low-cost carriers like Arajet sometimes undercut the legacy airlines substantially on multi-leg fares.
Why it matters: direct intra-regional routes in Latin America are thin on the ground, and every restoration like this one makes multi-country Caribbean-and-Andes trips more realistic for regular travellers rather than just frequent flyers. Expect seats on the initial rotations to go quickly if the full-flight starts are anything to go by.
