American Airlines will resume flying between Miami and Port-au-Prince on May 9, just over two months after suspending flights in and out of Haiti due to civil unrest and security concerns.
The move comes one day after the country installed a new nine-member presidential council that will help the country form a new government.
American Airlines will fly daily, seven days a week between Miami International Airport and Toussaint Louverture International Airport, and tickets are now available online, the carrier said on Friday. One-way main cabin fares from Port-au-Prince to MIA will be capped at $705 and business class fares capped at $1,699, excluding taxes and fees, said spokesperson Laura Masvidal. American will use a Boeing 737-800 with 166 seats.
The announced price caps came as some Haitians complained about seeing fares as high as $3,400 for one-way tickets.
On Friday, a search of American Airlines’ website for one-way flights from Miami to Port-au-Prince found no availability until May 17, indicating earlier flights were sold out, Masvidal said. A one-way ticket on that day was listed at $320. The fare dropped to $125 for May 21.
A search for one-way flights from Port-au-Prince to Miami also found first availability on May 17. Economy was sold out but a business class seat for the two-hour trip was listed at $1,975. That was a result of the $1,699 capped airfare plus $276 in fees and taxes, according to the website. The first coach ticket was not available until May 20 and was listed at $882. That reflected the capped fare of $705 plus fees and taxes.
American’s resumed flights are likely to inject some normalcy into the Caribbean country but also provide a much needed way in and out — for people and for supplies. All U.S. commercial airlines that fly between Haiti and the U.S. have suspended their flights since early March.
Haiti has been mired in gang-fueled violence, kidnappings and instability for several months. More than five million Haitians are going hungry in a humanitarian crisis. Gangs now control more than 80% of metropolitan Port-au-Prince.
Since January, more than 2,500 Haitians have been killed or injured, according to the U.N., the deadliest three months since the global body’s political office in Haiti began tracking gang-related deaths in 2021.
Former Prime Minister Ariel Henry was pressured to resign. He had been locked out of his country for two months. He was in Kenya finalizing an agreement for the deployment of a multinational security support force to help the Haiti National Police combat gangs, when the violence shut down the country’s airports.
On Thursday, a new nine-member presidential council was installed in a two-part ceremony in the country’s gang-ridden capital. Members secretly took the oath of office on the grounds of the National Police, which had been under constant attack by gangs. Still, there was non-stop stop shooting in downtown Port-au-Prince for more than three hours on Thursday, the Miami Herald reported.
American Airlines, MIA’s largest carrier, suspended flights early in March. JetBlue Airways and Spirit did so, too. Neither of them though has resumed flights between Haiti and the U.S.
JetBlue said its tentative resumption date is May 15. Spirit, a low-cost service based in Dania Beach which flies between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port-au-Prince and also Cap-Haitien, said its service “remains suspended until further notice.”
Earlier in the week, the Biden administration sent a U.S. military aircraft to Port-au-Prince weeks after notifying the U.S. Congress it would be providing millions of dollars’ worth of weapons and ammunition to help Haiti National Police officers take on ruthless gangs. That was the first aircraft to land on the country’s main runway in nearly two months.