Haitians, others finally have way to escape violence: Airline relaunches Haiti-Miami flights

U.S. green-card holders, Haitian nationals and others with proper travel documents who until now have been unable to get out of violence-torn Haiti will finally get a chance to leave — if they can safely make it to Cap-Haïtien, the city north of Port-au-Prince.

Haiti-based Sunrise Airways, which launched services to Miami International Airport in October, says it will operate three flights out of Cap-Haïtien’s Hugo Chavez International Airport to Miami beginning on Monday. For now, the airline has confirmed flights to Miami International Airport for Monday, Wednesday and Friday, said spokeswoman Stéphanie Armand. The carrier is also launching, beginning on Monday, daily flight service between the cities of Les Cayes, in the south of Haiti, and Cap-Haïtien.

Before the violence forced the cancellation of domestic and international flights in Haiti, Sunrise Airways operated daily domestic flights throughout Haiti. It also operated flights between Miami International Airport and Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and between Miami and Cap-Haïtien on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Haiti’s second largest city, Cap-Haïtien has been relatively calm compared to Port-au-Prince, where a united front of heavily armed gang leaders continue to lead violent attacks on neighborhoods, police stations and other key government facilities, trapping an estimated 3 million people.

The Miami-bound flight is “totally open for sale to any passengers with the required travel document,” Armand said. The tickets can be booked on sunriseairways.net, she said. A check by the Miami Herald showed that tickets were available for $948.99, one way for Monday and for $979 on Wednesday and Friday.

The website includes a prompt for airline passengers who had a ticket but were stranded after the airline and U.S.-based carriers canceled commercial flights to and from Haiti earlier this month when armed gangs attacked the international airport in Port-au-Prince. The attacks also led Sunrise Airways to cancel all domestic service after three of its planes were hit by bullets.

U.S.-based carriers American Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines have not flown to Haiti since March 4, amid attempts by armed groups to take over the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in the capital. The cancellations have left U.S.-bound passengers and others trying to escape the violence with few options as armed groups continue to take over much of the capital.

While connecting to the Sunrise Airways flight still requires those trapped in Port-au-Prince to fly by helicopter to Cap-Haïtien — or risk travel through gang-controlled roads to reach the northern city — it is an option that, until now, has not existed for most people in Haiti.

The U.S. government operated its first evacuation flight out of Haiti last Sunday using the Cap-Haïtien international airport. This week, the U.S. State Department also began chartering helicopter flights to carry American citizens from Port-au-Prince to Santo Domingo in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

The U.S. government flights, which require passengers to sign a promissory note for payment, are open only to U.S. citizens. This has left holders of U.S. Permanent Residency cards, colloquially known as green cards, with few options to get out of Haiti. Dominican authorities are not allowing people with Haitian passports to enter their country.

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