Overview:
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has prolonged its ban on U.S. flights to Port-au-Prince till September 8, 2025, citing ongoing safety dangers from armed gangs. The restriction, which impacts main airways like American, Spirit, and JetBlue, retains Haiti’s capital minimize off from direct business flights in the course of the busy summer season journey season. In the meantime, Haitian authorities are increasing regional airports to take care of worldwide entry.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has prolonged its ban on U.S. flights to Port-au-Prince till Sept. 8, 2025, conserving Haiti’s capital minimize off from American air carriers by means of the busy summer season journey season.
The FAA first imposed the ban in November 2024 after gunfire hit three U.S. planes trying to land. Whereas flights had been later allowed to Cap-Haïtien and 5 different northern airports, the FAA says gang violence in Port-au-Prince stays too harmful for business air journey. The restrictions had been set to run out on March 12, however officers determined the dangers had been nonetheless too excessive.
Because the preliminary FAA ban, main airways, together with American Airways, Spirit Airways, and JetBlue, have suspended flights to Haiti indefinitely, citing safety issues. In a March 6 assertion, JetBlue confirmed that flights to Port-au-Prince would stay halted till not less than June 11, 2025.
“Our prime precedence stays the security and well-being of our prospects and crew members,” a JetBlue spokesperson informed The Miami Herald. “As a result of ongoing civil unrest in Haiti, we’ve got made the choice to droop all flights to and from the nation by means of not less than June 11, 2025.”
Solely restricted air journey choices stay
With Port-au-Prince’s important airport successfully closed to business flights, Haiti’s authorities has shifted focus to regional airports to take care of worldwide journey entry. The Cap-Haïtien Worldwide Airport stays the one possibility for direct business flights between Haiti and the US, operated by Dawn Airways and different small carriers.
In early March, Haitian authorities introduced that the Antoine Simon Airport in Les Cayes had accomplished a runway extension, permitting it to obtain worldwide flights. An identical enlargement at Jacmel’s airport was finalized in January 2025.
Haitian officers accomplished the long-delayed step by increasing the airport runway from 1,350 to 1,850 meters and making it attainable to accommodate plane with 50 to 80 passengers.
These measures don’t absolutely compensate for the lack of business flights to the capital, which stays the nation’s major financial hub and residential to tens of millions of residents who depend on air journey for enterprise, medical remedy, and household reunifications.
Diplomatic efforts and safety issues
U.S. and Haitian officers have mentioned attainable steps to revive business air journey safely, however no concrete timeline has been established. Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Dennis Hankins met with Haiti’s Nationwide Workplace of Civil Aviation Director, Réginald Guignard, to debate securing the perimeter of Toussaint Louverture Worldwide Airport.
Whereas the airport stays closed to business visitors, it nonetheless receives navy and diplomatic flights, together with these associated to the Kenya-led multinational safety mission, which is predicted to deploy forces to Haiti to assist fight gang violence.
Because the Sept. 8 deadline approaches, the FAA is predicted to reevaluate the safety state of affairs earlier than making one other resolution on the flight ban. Within the meantime, Haitians in search of to journey overseas must depend on regional airports or various routes by means of the Dominican Republic or the Bahamas—an added monetary and logistical burden.