With Haiti undergoing a prolonged period of gang and political violence that followed the forced resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry in April 2024, no U.S. airline has been permitted to fly into the country since the FAA first issued its ban on commercial flights in November 2024.

Eventually extended until March 2026, the prohibition came after Spirit, JetBlue, and Southwest Airlines planes trying to land at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport (PAP) in Port-au-Prince were all grazed by gunfire within a few days of each other last November, as rival gangs fought for control of the airport.

Due to similar safety concerns, the FAA ban now also prohibits U.S. commercial planes from flying through certain Haitian airspace at altitudes lower than 10,000 feet.

Sunrise Airways cancels all flights after plane hit by gunfire

With most major cruise lines currently also not making their regular Haiti port stops, the main way to get to the Caribbean country making up half of the Hispaniola island with the Dominican Republic is to fly on a regional airline.

As first reported by the Miami Herald, Haitian regional carrier Sunrise Airways has now also canceled all of its domestic flights after a plane landing at the Guy Malary terminal of Toussaint Louverture International was struck by bullets.

The flight was coming in from the more stable Les Cayes port city in the southwest of the country, which is still frequented by some tourists. The bullet fire grazed the aircraft's fuselage in a Nov. 23 incident that caused no injuries to the passengers or crew inside.

Other than confirming that the incident occurred and that it was suspending all domestic operations within Haiti pending an investigation, Sunrise Airways has not released much information about the damage to the plane or details regarding how the shots were fired.

Sunrise says it "will resume operations as soon as conditions allow"

Founded in 2010 to run a mix of passenger and charter flights, Port-au-Prince-based Sunrise Airways has continued to provide both domestic and international service into violence-torn Haiti over the last year. On its website, the airline names destinations such as Cuba, Grenada, Guadeloupe, and the British Virgin Islands as ones that it currently serves.

With no U.S. airlines currently permitted to fly into Haiti, Sunrise has also become the main connector for members of the Haitian diaspora living in the country. The airline has continued to run flights to Cap-Haïtien on the safer north coast from Miami International Airport (MIA) and recently announced plans to launch new routes to New York and Fort Lauderdale.

"This decision was made in order to protect our passengers, crews and operations, given the current security situation," the airline said in a statement. "We are closely monitoring developments in coordination with the relevant authorities and will resume operations as soon as conditions allow."

The rest of the statement says that Sunrise Airways wants to keep "the safety of our passengers and employees" its main priority and that it will take "no risks [...] until all conditions are fully met to operate safely." (Yahoo News)

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