Airline to offer nonstop flight to Dominican Republic

WARWICK — T. F. Green Airport will have another try at nonstop flights to the Caribbean this fall, as Sun Country Airlines will begin service to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, airline and airport officials announced Tuesday morning.

This follows short-lived service to Martinique and Guadeloupe begun in the fall of 2017 by Norwegian Air Shuttle, which, despite abandoning that route, still flies from Green to Ireland.

Why will service to the Dominican Republic be more successful?

"The flights to the Dominican Republic from this facility will probably always be sold out," said Joseph J. Solomon, mayor of the airport's host city of Warwick.

"We have very strong community support," said Iftikhar Ahmad, chief executive of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, the state agency that runs Green and five smaller state-owned airports. "They asked for it."

As Jorge Elorza, mayor of Providence, put it: Rhode Island is home to 40,000 Dominicans, the largest Latino group in the state. "This is a big deal," Elorza said. "This is a very, very big deal."

Ahmad said of the size of the Dominican population in Rhode Island: "It will be able to support a flight."

Ahmad also expects Green's convenient size will attract travelers who might otherwise go to Boston Logan International Airport. He said parking is cheaper and security screening is quicker at Green. And, because Green has limited international service, passing through customs on the way back is quicker, too, he said. "You're not standing in a long line like they do at Logan. You're the only flight."

And $190 fares each way will make Green competitive, he said.

Providence City Council President Sabina Matos, a native of the Dominican Republic, said, "I think it's going to be very successful."

Sun Country Airlines spokeswoman Kirsten Wenker said the airline expects a mixture of travelers visiting family — either here or in the Dominican Republic — and those going to the Dominican for vacation. "We should have a good combination of both," Wenker said.

Service will begin Nov. 16 with one flight a week on Saturdays. On Dec. 25, a second weekly flight will be added on Wednesdays.

Sun Country began service from Green to Nashville and Minneapolis in April, and is scheduled to add service from Green to New Orleans and Las Vegas in September.

After Tuesday's morning news conference to announce the Dominican service, T.F. Green sent a news release inviting reporters to the airport on Wednesday to announce a new regional tourism route by a new airline, Southern Airways Express.

An airport spokesman declined to say where the airline would fly from Green, but Southern Airways Express operates a fleet of Cessna Caravans and Grand Caravans, single-prop planes that typically seat nine, and are often used to connect mainland airports to nearby island destinations. The airline flies regional routes within Pennsylvania and neighboring states, within a group of six southern states, in southern California and among the Hawaiian islands.