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After a prolonged period of operational pause and internal corporate restructuring, Dominican airline Sky Cana is laying the groundwork for a phased return to the country’s commercial aviation market, with an early focus on passenger charter services across the Caribbean region.

Frank Díaz González, chief executive of both Sky Cana and its parent company Sky Holding, confirmed that the brand has been preserved throughout the reorganization process, and leadership has already put in place a structured roadmap to steadily restore flight operations.

As a core component of this reboot, SETRAD — the group’s Dominican air transport subsidiary, which operates under the RAD 135 regional aviation regulatory framework — is moving forward with the acquisition of an Embraer ERJ-145LR regional jet. The aircraft is on track to be delivered to the Dominican Republic by the end of October 2026, according to company plans.

Once all mandatory aviation certification, aircraft registration, and regulatory approval checks are completed, the jet will be integrated into Sky Cana’s operational fleet via a long-term dry-lease agreement. The first phase of the carrier’s restart will center exclusively on charter services to a curated set of Caribbean destinations, prioritizing steady, demand-aligned growth over rapid expansion.

Down the line, after establishing a foothold in the regional charter market, the company plans to bring larger aircraft into service to scale up its charter network. It will also evaluate the feasibility of resuming full scheduled commercial passenger services, a decision that will hinge on both prevailing market conditions and successful completion of all required regulatory reviews.

“There is no plan to rebuild Sky Cana’s former operations overnight,” Díaz González emphasized, framing the carrier’s return as a deliberate, step-by-step process rooted in strict regulatory compliance, rigorous operational quality control, and disciplined financial management. He added that key takeaways from the airline’s previous period of operation have been directly integrated into the company’s updated business model, and will serve as a guiding framework for the carrier’s expansion into its initial target markets.

In a strategic move to expand its enterprise technology services and cater to the booming demand for digital advancement across the Dominican Republic, leading local telecommunications provider Claro Dominicana has announced the addition of Amazon Web Services (AWS) to its growing cloud infrastructure product lineup. This new partnership is designed to equip businesses of all scales with enhanced tools to speed up their digital transformation, drive innovation, and fuel sustainable long-term growth.

Under the terms of the alliance, organizations operating in the region will gain direct access to AWS’s comprehensive suite of industry-leading cloud services, while retaining the localized, on-the-ground support that only a domestic technology partner can deliver. Unlike generic international cloud access, this collaboration pairs AWS’s global technological capabilities with Claro’s deep understanding of local business needs, filling a key gap for Dominican companies seeking flexible, scalable digital infrastructure.

AWS’s cloud ecosystem covers a wide range of critical business capabilities, including secure cloud storage, managed relational and non-relational databases, flexible cloud networking, enterprise-grade cybersecurity solutions, cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools, and advanced big data analytics services. One of the core advantages of the AWS platform is its ability to let companies dynamically scale their computing resources up or down to match real-time demand. This flexibility enables businesses to deploy new software applications much faster than traditional on-premise setups, while eliminating the need for organizations to build, maintain, and update their own physical server infrastructure, cutting both capital and operational costs.

The integration of AWS into Claro’s service stack complements the provider’s existing cloud offerings, which include its in-house Claro Cloud Enterprise platform and a partnership with Microsoft Azure. By adding AWS to its portfolio, Claro now offers businesses a wider range of choices to address their unique digital modernization goals, whether they are looking to update legacy applications, migrate existing on-premise workloads to the cloud, or optimize their overall technology spending and resource allocation.

Claro has stressed that it will provide end-to-end specialized support for customers throughout their entire cloud adoption journey. This full-spectrum support starts with initial assessments of a business’s unique needs, moves through custom solution design, implementation, and ongoing management, and continues with regular performance optimization to ensure the cloud environment continues to align with evolving business goals.

According to Claro’s official statement, the unique combination of AWS’s cutting-edge global cloud technology and Claro’s local market expertise is positioned to help Dominican businesses get the maximum return on their technology investments, while moving forward more quickly with their digital transformation initiatives. This partnership is expected to strengthen the local digital ecosystem, making advanced cloud infrastructure more accessible to small, medium, and large enterprises across the country, and supporting broader economic growth through increased digital innovation.

The Caribbean cruise tourism landscape is gaining a major new player in one of its fastest-growing hubs, as Disney Cruise Line makes its long-awaited debut in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. This month marks the first time two of the entertainment giant’s cruise vessels will dock at the region’s Taíno Bay terminal, adding one of the world’s most recognizable family-focused brands to Puerto Plata’s growing lineup of cruise partners.

The first vessel to arrive is the *Disney Dream*, a well-established cruise ship that entered service in 2011 and carries roughly 2,778 passengers on this itinerary. Two days after the *Disney Dream*’s port call, the *Disney Destiny*—Disney’s newest next-generation cruise vessel—will follow, bringing an additional 2,787 passengers to the Dominican coast. Combined, the two inaugural calls will bring more than 5,500 visitors to Puerto Plata, injecting immediate economic activity into local tourism-dependent businesses.

Disney’s entry into Puerto Plata comes as the Dominican Republic aggressively expands its foothold in the competitive Caribbean cruise market, with Puerto Plata positioned as the central anchor of this growth strategy. Official data from the Dominican Port Authority (APORDOM) illustrates just how critical the region has become to the country’s cruise sector: this October alone, 43 total cruise ships are scheduled to dock across the nation’s three purpose-built cruise terminals, bringing an estimated 173,983 passengers to Dominican shores.

Of those October arrivals, 20 ships and 77,171 passengers are scheduled for Taíno Bay, while 18 ships and 76,834 passengers will dock at Amber Cove—Puerto Plata’s second major cruise terminal. The country’s third terminal, located at Cabo Rojo in Pedernales, is set to welcome five ships and 19,978 passengers this month. When combined, Puerto Plata’s two terminals are on track to receive nearly 89% of all cruise passengers arriving in the Dominican Republic in October, cementing the region’s status as the nation’s undisputed cruise tourism hub.

This rapid growth is not a one-month anomaly—it reflects a steady, year-over-year upward trend that has reshaped the Dominican tourism economy. Data from the first eight months of the current year shows Taíno Bay has already welcomed 800,680 cruise passengers, while Amber Cove has hosted 700,578 cruise visitors. APORDOM projects that annual passenger volumes at Taíno Bay alone will hit roughly 1.22 million by the end of 2026.

At the national level, the Dominican Republic’s cruise sector growth tells a similarly positive story. In 2025, the country welcomed 2.77 million cruise passengers across 922 vessel calls. Central Bank of the Dominican Republic data shows that during the first two months of 2026, total cruise arrivals hit 745,179—an increase of more than 65,000 passengers compared to the same period in 2025.

With Disney Cruise Line’s arrival, Puerto Plata’s cruise market now features one of the most diverse lineups in the Caribbean, joining existing major operators including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, MSC, Celebrity, Princess, Virgin and Holland America. Unlike many other cruise lines that target a broad range of traveler demographics, Disney brings a uniquely powerful family-focused brand built around its iconic characters, blockbuster films and immersive storytelling. The *Disney Destiny*, as part of Disney’s newest fleet generation, incorporates cutting-edge immersive themes from across the Disney entertainment ecosystem, including Pixar and Marvel properties, alongside classic Disney narratives.

For Puerto Plata, the value of Disney’s debut extends far beyond the 5,500 passengers arriving this month. The new port calls open a unique opportunity to showcase the region’s natural attractions, local cultural experiences and small businesses to a massive new audience of potential future visitors. As cruise traffic continues to climb year over year, local tourism stakeholders now face the core challenge of transforming short one-day port calls into memorable, immersive experiences that encourage cruise travelers to return for extended multi-day vacations in the future.

Ultimately, Disney Cruise Line’s first call at Taíno Bay is far more than a routine port visit for two vessels. It marks a major milestone in the Dominican Republic’s expansion of its cruise tourism sector, diversifies Puerto Plata’s brand offerings, and reinforces the city’s standing as one of the leading maritime tourism gateways in the entire Caribbean region.

In a move set to reshape the Dominican Republic’s aviation sector, the national airline industry association has publicly praised President Luis Abinader’s latest policy decision to introduce a regulated temperature adjustment for aviation turbine fuel, commonly known as avtur. The Asociacion Dominicana de Lineas Aéreas (ADLA), the leading industry body representing the country’s airline operators, describes the reform as a critical milestone that will strengthen the sector’s long-term competitiveness.

The regulatory change did not emerge spontaneously: it directly responds to a formal policy proposal ADLA submitted to national authorities back in March 2025. The association had long pushed for equal regulatory treatment between avtur and other liquid fuels sold across the Dominican Republic, a request that has now been granted by the government.

Beyond welcoming the president’s approval, ADLA also extended formal gratitude to Eduardo Sanz Lovatón, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, as well as his ministry’s entire technical team. The new framework not only codifies the temperature adjustment for avtur but also adds aviation fuel to the weekly public fuel price announcements published by the government, bringing greater transparency to the market.

Omar A. Chahin, president of ADLA, emphasized that the long-sought adjustment will create far fairer operating conditions for all airlines serving the Dominican Republic. He also reaffirmed that the policy recognizes the outsized economic importance of air connectivity, which serves as a foundational pillar for the country’s key tourism, trade and investment sectors.

To understand the significance of the change, it is necessary to examine the long-standing inequity in fuel pricing standards. Across global markets, liquid fuel commerce almost universally uses a 15°C reference temperature to calculate standardized volumes, accounting for the fact that fuel volume expands and contracts with temperature fluctuations. In the Dominican Republic, this temperature adjustment has long been applied to common fuels including gasoline, diesel and kerosene to offset volumetric differences caused by temperature shifts. Until now, however, aviation fuel was excluded from this adjustment, placing airlines at a structural cost disadvantage.

ADLA stressed that the reform carries particular weight at a time of persistent volatility in global crude oil markets. Fuel already accounts for one of the largest single operating expenses for airlines, a burden that has grown heavier amid rising international oil prices. With the new temperature adjustment in place, avtur will now be priced according to its actual volume at the standard 15°C reference point, aligning the Dominican Republic’s fuel pricing practices with those common across other regional markets.

Looking ahead, ADLA confirmed that it will maintain ongoing collaborative work with national regulatory authorities to ensure the adjustment is rolled out consistently across the entire avtur distribution chain. The association’s ultimate goal is to guarantee that the cost benefits of the reform are fully passed through to the airline operators that serve the Dominican Republic’s travel and trade markets.