Air Europa is upping its flights to Santo Domingo from April 1st 2013.

The decision follows that of Iberia to axe the Spanish Caribbean from its route network.

The Barcelona-based airline will up its flights to 14 to the Dominican Republic.

The new Santo Domingo schedule of double daily flights represents a doubling of the Air Europa schedule.

The service will be operated by Airbus A330-200 aircraft, with 24 business-class seats. From the UK, passengers can fly from Gatwick via Madrid to the Dominican Republic.

British Airways has also confirmed its scheduled twice weekly service from London Gatwick to Punta Cana will be increased to three times per week.

The flights will be on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from London Gatwick to Punta Cana and will commence in October 2013.

BA is currently the only UK scheduled carrier to operate a regular service to the Dominican Republic.

BA will use a three class, 280 seat Boeing 777 aircraft with 40 Club World seats, 24 World Traveller Plus and 216 World Traveller seats.

Finally, TUI Travel will re-commence direct flights from Gatwick to Samana for summer 2013.

The service will begin May 9th and last flight will be on October 31st.

The Dominican Republic is in mint condition in Samana.

While tourism has built up the resorts of Punta Cana and Puerto Plata, this swathe of the country’s northeast coast is comparatively untouched.

It’s the region’s rainforests that have been left to their own devices the most.

Wild coconut groves and tropical woodland streaked with waterfalls have spread like wildfire through the interior, not far from the coast.