PORT-AU-PRINCE – JetBlue Airways, the only U.S. carrier that connects Haiti directly with South Florida and New York, has extended suspension of its daily flights between the United States and the volatile Caribbean nation until late April 2025.
“Due to the ongoing civil unrest in Haiti, we have made the decision to suspend all flights to and from the country through at least April 30,” Selma Garcia, a spokesperson with the airlines, told the Miami Herald on Thursday. “We will continue to monitor the situation closely and update our plans as necessary.”
The Federal Aviation Administration had earlier extended a flight ban on U.S. commercial and cargo flights traveling to Port-au-Prince until March 12. The decision was announced the same day that Haitian officials officially reopened both Toussaint Louverture International Airport in the capital and the nearby Guy Malary terminal for domestic flights.
Earlier this month, American Airlines told the Herald that it had indefinitely suspended its flights between Miami and Port-au-Prince, and would revisit the decision in late 2025.
JetBlue, which operates flights between Haiti and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and between Haiti and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, cited the “safety and well-being of our customers and crew members” as the reasons for their decision to suspend the flights to Haiti until April.
While the suspensions have created anxiety for travelers, Haiti’s gang violence has created problems for pilots, some of whom were already prevented by charter and insurance companies from landing in Port-au-Prince after armed gangs shot at three U.S. commercial carriers on November 11.
Those prompted each of the carriers — American Airlines, Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways — to announce suspension of their daily service and led to the FAA issuing a 30-day ban for the entire country before amending it to exclude some regions of Haiti. Haitian officials on their own also made the decision to temporarily close the capital’s international airport and Guy Malary for the second time this year.
Haiti’s only other international airfield, Hugo Chávez International Airport in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien, is exempted from the FAA ban and is the only gateway out of the country other than the vexing land border with the neighboring Dominican Republic. On Thursday, the Cap-Haïtien airport received its second planeload of deportees from the United States despite severe flooding in the region that has cut off roads in and out of the city.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance, an advocacy group, condemned the Biden administration for what it says is “its blatant violation of international and domestic laws through the continued deportation of asylum seekers to the Republic of Haiti. “
“These actions undermine the United States’ long-standing commitment to human rights, due process, and international obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1980 Refugee Act,” the San Diego immigration-rights group said. “The recent wave of deportations, including vulnerable Haitian families fleeing violence, persecution, and immense violence, demonstrates a disturbing disregard for legal protections guaranteed to asylum seekers under U.S. and international law. “
Though Haitian-owned Sunrise Airways operates flights between Miami International Airport and Cap-Haïtien, and two airline companies connect the city with the neighboring Turks and Caicos Islands, the ban on U.S. commercial flights has isolated Haiti from the world. While people with means are able to connect to the capital on helicopters, others are trapped in Port-au-Prince, where on Monday armed gangs torched the Bernard Mevs trauma and critical care hospital.
The lifting of the FAA ban and tje resumption of daily service by JetBlue or any major U.S. airlines will depend on Haiti’s ability to convince airlines and the United States that air travel into its capital is safe, something the prime minister’s office says it is working on.
Until this year gangs had kept their automatic rifles aimed at neighborhoods and each other as they sought control of more territory in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and the neighboring Artibonite region. But in early March the country confronted coordinated, attacks from a powerful gang coalition trying to bring down the government.
Several Sunrise Airways jetliners were struck by stray bullets while on the tarmac. Then in October, a United Nations helicopter with three crew members and 15 passengers aboard was hit with multiple rounds as it flew over a gang-controlled neighborhood in the capital. No one was injured. Weeks later Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways and American Airlines all reported that their aircraft was hit by gunfire as pilots flew over Port-au-Prince.
The worst of the incidents involved a Spirit Airlines flight that had taken off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. It was riddled with bullets as it prepared to land in the capital. No passengers were hurt, but a flight attendant had minor injuries. The gunfire forced the pilot to divert the flight to the neighboring Dominican Republic. Spirit Airlines, which has also canceled flights into Cap-Haïtien, has not said if or when it plans to return to Haiti.
By JACQUELINE CHARLES/Miami Herald
