Aeropuerto Internacional de Las Américas handles more than four million passengers annually, yet fewer than eight percent travel the 130-kilometre corridor to Punta Cana by scheduled shuttle. Most arrivals board private transfers arranged before departure, a pattern that emerged after the 2019 expansion of SDQ's international terminal consolidated all ground-transport desks into a single air-conditioned hall. The move shortened pickup coordination but lengthened the walk from immigration to the transport zone by nearly 400 metres. The Santo Domingo Airport to Punta Cana shuttle route follows Autopista del Este, a toll expressway completed in phases between 2006 and 2012 that reduced travel time from three hours to under two. Drivers exit at Boulevard Turístico del Este near Bávaro, then distribute passengers across eighteen resort zones spanning Uvero Alto to Cap Cana. Peak traffic builds between noon and four in the afternoon when northbound cruise passengers and southbound resort arrivals converge at the San Pedro de Macorís interchange. Late-evening transfers, timed to red-eye arrivals from North America, encounter sparse traffic but face a smaller fleet of licensed operators. Shared shuttles depart on fixed schedules—typically hourly between six in the morning and eleven at night—and require a minimum of four confirmed passengers. Private transfers operate around the clock, their drivers waiting in the arrivals hall with printed name cards visible from the customs exit. Vehicle classes range from sedan to fifteen-passenger van, though minibuses dominate the private-transfer market because Dominican families and North American groups often travel in parties of six to nine. Air-conditioning, bottled water, and a bilingual driver are standard across all licensed operators, a regulatory baseline enforced by the Dirección General de Tránsito Terrestre since 2021. The corridor's infrastructure matured rapidly after Hurricane María passed east of the island in 2017, prompting the Ministry of Tourism to mandate GPS tracking and liability insurance for all airport-to-resort vehicles. That policy coincided with the expansion of Punta Cana's hotel inventory by 22,000 rooms between 2018 and 2023, a construction wave that doubled shuttle demand and drew thirty-one new operators into the market. By September 2026, five companies hold the majority of private-transfer contracts with international booking platforms, their fleets maintained to standards that exceed the national minimum.