History
Dominicana started in 1944, out of the neccesity to have a national airline due to the large number of Dominican citizens who emigrate to places like New York, Miami, San Juan and Madrid. Dominicana then used such airplanes as the DC-3 and DC-6 for their routes. In January 11 of 1948, one of their DC-3's crashed in Santo Domingo, killing 28 people.
The 1950s saw large domestic expansion, and the airline began flying heavily between Santo Domingo and other Dominican cities, such as Puerto Plata, La Romana, Punta Cana and Santiago De Los Caballeros. The decade of the '50s also saw the addition of Curtiss C-46 and Carvair ATL-98 planes to their fleet.
When the 1960s arrived, so did jets for Dominicana. The airline used the DC-8 plane for their longer flights, such as the one to JFK International Airport in New York. They also bought Boeing 727s and DC-9s during that era.
The 1970s stared with a tragedy for Dominicana, when a DC-9 that was flying to Puerto Rico crashed into a beach near Santo Domingo, after the pilots of the plane had been granted emergency landing clearance by Las Americas International Airport's control tower. 102 people lost their lives, including world boxing champion Carlos Cruz, his wife and kids, and some members of the Puerto Rican women's national volleyball team. The decade of the 1970's saw the addition of the Boeing 747 jets for a brief time, used for their flights to Barajas International Airport in Madrid.
During the early 1980s, Dominicana added a large amount of daily flights to Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, using their 727's. They also expanded all around the Caribbean and to such points in South America as Caracas, Bogota and Quito as well as to points in Central America. But by 1987, the airline's economic situation started to suffer and routes began to be cut off, including the vital route to San Juan.
By 1990, their situation was critical already, and in 1995, the airline only had three airplanes, all 727's, left. To add to their problems, they also only had one route left, the one to Miami International Airport. Due to the severe economical crisis the airline was facing, it was decided to pull the plug off the airline that year. In 1997, airline APA Internacional tried to carry on the Dominicana legacy by becoming APA Dominicana Internacional, but this airline was short lived. Dominicana De Aviacions livery consisted of a metallic silver fuselage (although some of their planes had an all white fuselage), with red and blue cheatlines, representing the color of the Dominican flag, that went all the way to the tail. The tail logo was two large blue and two large red blocks, similar to the blocks seen on the Dominican flag. The name Dominicana was written in black letters on top of the passenger windows.
