Unit­ed States car­ri­er, Jet­Blue says it will ex­tend its sus­pen­sion of flights to Haiti un­til April 30, 2025, cit­ing on­go­ing civ­il un­rest and se­cu­ri­ty risks.

This de­ci­sion was made fol­low­ing in­ci­dents in No­vem­ber when air­craft from Jet­Blue, Spir­it, and Amer­i­can Air­lines were struck by bul­lets short­ly be­fore land­ing at the  Tou­s­saint Lou­ver­ture In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port here.

In a state­ment, the air­line em­pha­sized that the safe­ty of its cus­tomers and crew re­mains its top pri­or­i­ty and it will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the sit­u­a­tion. 

The Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Ad­min­is­tra­tion (FAA) has al­so ex­tend­ed its ban on civ­il flights to Haiti un­til March 2025. Amer­i­can Air­lines and Spir­it have sim­i­lar­ly sus­pend­ed ser­vices with­out spec­i­fy­ing a re­turn date.

Cur­rent­ly, Sun­rise Air­ways is the sole air­line pro­vid­ing di­rect flights be­tween Haiti and the Unit­ed States. 

The sus­pen­sion of ma­jor car­ri­ers high­lights the se­vere se­cu­ri­ty cri­sis in Haiti, where es­ca­lat­ing gang vi­o­lence has dis­rupt­ed air trans­port and fur­ther strained the coun­try’s econ­o­my.

CMC/jb/kb/2024

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Dec. 19, CMC