American Airlines has backtracked on its plans to resume flights to the gang ridden nation of Haiti in February, company officials said.
After initially suspending its daily flights from Miami, Florida, into Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport until February 12, an airline spokesperson told the Miami Herald that it will evaluate resuming in late 2025.
“American has made the difficult decision to suspend daily service between Miami (MIA) and Port-au-Prince, Haiti (PAP),” the company said in a statement. “We are proud of our more than 50-year-commitment to Haiti and we will continue to monitor the situation, assessing safety, security, and customer demand, in evaluating a return of service. We will proactively reach out to impacted customers to offer a full refund of their travel itinerary.”
The announcement comes less than a month after a Spirit Airlines flight attendant was injured by gunfire while the aircraft attempted to land in Port-au-Prince, Breitbart News reported.
The flight, which departed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, then had to make an emergency diversion to Cibao International Airport in Santiago, Dominican Republic.
Spirit, along with JetBlue, have also suspended service to Haiti amid the violence, Fox Business reported.
In October, a United Nations (UN) helicopter was also struck by gunfire in Port-au-Prince airspace, though no one was injured.
The UN said at least 4,500 people have been killed in the brutal violence in Haiti this year up until late November, France24 reported.
Thousands more Haitians have been displaced.
According to UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell, up to half of Haiti’s armed gang members are children, employed as “informants, cooks and sex slaves” in addition to being “forced to perpetrate violence.”
