The Federal Aviation Administration is once more extending its ban on U.S. commercial carriers landing in Haiti’s capital.
The current ban, which was set to expire on Monday, September 8, has now been extended to March 7, 2026, an FAA spokesperson said. While U.S. carriers and those operated by U.S. licensed pilots can fly over Port-au-Prince, they are prohibited from landing there or operating below 10,000 feet in its air space.
In providing background on its six-month extension, the FAA used the State Department’s recent designation of the country’s most powerful gang coalition, Viv Ansanm, as a global and Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The agency also suggested that despite the presence of an armed international force led by Kenya, working alongside the Haiti National Police, armed gangs continue to be a threat in the concerned areas.
The agency noted that within the last six months, Haitian gangs have “expanded their area of operations to control nearly 90 percent of Port-au-Prince and the immediately surrounding strategic routes and border areas.” The gangs also continue to have access to small arms and unmanned aircraft systems — drones — capable of reaching low-altitude phases of flight, the FAA said.
“Haitian and international security forces, which experience persistent personnel and equipment shortages, have a limited ability to counter FTO activities in and around Port-au-Prince,” the agency said. “Additionally, these organizations’ uncoordinated actions against FTOs — to include conducting targeted UAS strikes against FTO leaders in Port-au-Prince — reduce their operational effectiveness and further complicates low-altitude airspace deconfliction efforts.”
This November will mark a year since the ban on U.S. commercial and cargo flights was first imposed. U.S. authorities decided to issue the ban after three U.S. commercial airlines flying over Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport reported being hit by gang gunfire.
The three carriers — Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways and American Airlines — all announced cancellation of flight service into Haiti. Carriers from Canada and the France have also followed suit and earlier this year, American Airlines quietly shut down its operations after 50 years of servicing the country.
As a result of the ongoing violence, Haitians have found themselves virtually isolated. They not only face high costs from the few non-U.S. commercial carriers that do fly in and out of the country, using mainly the smaller Cap-Haïtien international airport, but the country’s airspace with the neighboring Dominican Republic remains closed. Also adding to Haitians’ travel woes, the Trump administration has placed Haiti under a travel ban. While Haitians with visas continue to have access to the United States, first-time visa seekers or those in need of renewal do not.
Despite the ongoing FAA ban, the Pentagon continues to fly flights into Port-au-Prince to service the Kenya led Multinational Security Support mission.
By JACQUELINE CHARLES/Miami Herald
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.