PAWA Dominicana (legally ''Pan Am World Airways Dominicana'') was the international

flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hist ...

of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. It was created as a subsidiary airline for

Pan American Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

. This airline had scheduled flights between Santo Domingo and other Caribbean and US destinations. It was based at Santo Domingo-Las Americas. Authority for several international routes was suspended January 28, 2018. As of February 2018, the airline has ceased all of its operations. The airline's failure would be the first test of the nation's new bankruptcy law.

History

PAWA Dominicana was created in 2003 as a subsidiary of

, which had also operated within a strategic alliance with

Boston-Maine Airways Boston-Maine Airways was an American airline headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States. It operated scheduled commuter services as well as Boeing 727 jet flights under the Pan Am Clipper Connection name. Its main base was Pease ...

. In April 2005, Servair, a Dominican Corporation dedicated to offering services to airlines in all airports in the

, acquired the airline completely and began a new certification process within the framework of the new Dominican regulations, which allowed the company to operate under local control. In May 2007, the company received the Air Operator Certificate Part 121 from the Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation (IDAC), which allows the airline to operate regular services from the Dominican Republic to North, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean region and charter services around the world. The first flight took place on October 1, 2007. On June 4, 2010, the company was purchased by a group of airline professionals and they appointed Mrs. Mirtha Espada as the company's president. In February 2012, the airline temporarily ceased scheduled services but continued operating charter services. In March 2012 the company appointed Hector Gomez as president with the task of re-orienting the company and also calling back the former company's founder and owner as a part of the organization. The airline secured its

air operator certificate An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets, and system in plac ...

in mid-October 2014 and started services using 4

McDonnell Douglas MD-80 The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 was the second gene ...

s. The first flight took place on August 14, 2015. On January 26, 2018, PAWA was suspended under the allegation of non-payment, since they owed more than $3 Million to the Dominican authorities, among them, the Civil Aviation Board, the Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation and the Dominican Airport's company 21st Century. Due to this, the JAC suspended the airline for 90 days and was not allowed to travel, therefore it had generated many complaints with passengers who are stranded in air terminals. On February 2, 2018, a new element was added due to the suspension and that is the lack of maintenance to the airline's fleet. PAWA's related Venezuelan airline,

SBA Airlines Santa Bárbara Airlines C.A, doing business as SBA Airlines and formerly as ''Santa Bárbara Airlines'' prior to 2008, was an airline with its headquarters on the third floor of the ''Edificio Tokay'' in Caracas, Venezuela. It operated scheduled ...

was also suspended by his country's authorities on the same day and for similar reasons in April of the same year. The company closed legally in August 6, 2019 by the authority of Dominican aviation IDAC.

Operations

PAWA Dominicana authority included international charter services and scheduled services to Antigua, Aruba, Curaçao, Havana, San Juan, and St. Maarten from their Santo Domingo hub with several flights a week on the MD-80 and DC-9. PAWA was working to consolidate flights to New York and Miami (service started Nov. 2016) and other Caribbean Islands. The company's goal was stated as "to make SDQ the HUB of the Caribbean." In the future, PAWA would have planned flights from

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

and

Punta Cana Punta Cana is a resort town in the easternmost region of the Dominican Republic. It is part of the Veron–Punta Cana Municipalities of the Dominican Republic, municipal district, in the Salvaleón de Higüey, Higüey municipality of La Altagraci ...

to Miami, New York, and San Juan.

Destinations

As of January 28, 2018, PAWA Dominicana served the following destinations:

Codeshare agreements

PAWA had

codeshare agreement A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

s with the following airlines: * Aserca Airlines *

Air Europa Air Europa Líneas Aéreas, S.A.U., branded as Air Europa, is the third-largest Spanish airline after Iberia and Vueling. The airline is headquartered in Llucmajor, Mallorca, Spain; it has its main hub at Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport ...

Fleet

Final fleet

PAWA Dominicana McDonnell Douglas MD-83 JP8459571

As of August 2017, the fleet of PAWA Dominicana consisted of the following aircraft:

Former fleet

PAWA Dominicana formerly operated the following types:

References

Junta de Aviación Civil de la República Dominicana (JAC). Instituto Dominicano de Aviación Civil de la República Dominicana (IDAC).

External links

PAWA Dominicana official website (out of order)
{{Airlines of the Dominican Republic Pan Am Defunct airlines of the Dominican Republic Airlines established in 2003 Airlines disestablished in 2018 2003 establishments in the Dominican Republic 2018 disestablishments in the Dominican Republic