American Airlines to restart flight to banned destination

Despite pumping significant resources into developing Labadee into a private port stop and resort, cruise line giant Royal Caribbean has not stopped in the port along Haiti's northern coast since 2024.

While Labadee is essentially a gated community that is located 100 miles away from the capital of Port-au-Prince and only accessible by ship or plane, the string of political and gang violence in Haiti has left many Royal cruisers uncomfortable with having it as one of their itinerary stops.

Last May, Royal confirmed that it will extend the Labadee ban throughout the rest of 2026 as it "continue[s] to monitor the situation with our Global Security & Intelligence team." The U.S. State Department currently also has Haiti at the highest level four "do not travel" rating.

American Airlines to resume flight to Haiti in November 2027

A Federal Aviation Administration ban on U.S. airlines flying into Toussaint Louverture International Airport (PAP) in Port-au-Prince is also presently in place until September 2026.

Located eight miles south of Labadee, Cap-Haïtien International Airport (CAP) is the second-largest airport in Haiti and once served as a key hub for tourists and members of the Haitian diaspora coming into Haiti. American Airlines launched a flight to Cap-Haïtien from Miami International (MIA) in 2014 but suspended it during the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Related: US gives ‘do not travel’ warning to popular Caribbean destination

The airline's flight to Port-au-Prince was launched more than 50 years ago but suspended after the FAA ban in 2024. Now, the Dallas-based carrier is set to resume its service to Haiti by restarting the Cap-Haïtien route on November 1.

The flight will run on a Boeing 737 plane with 172 seats of which 156 are in the main cabin and 16 are in business class. This makes American the first U.S. carrier to commit to restarting its Haitian service even as the ban into flying into the capital city has not yet been lifted. At the moment, Haitian carrier Sunrise Airways is one of the only ways for members of the Haitian community to come to the country by air.

Image source&colon Daniel Kline&solComeCruiseWith&periodcom

"Haiti is the largest country in the Caribbean by demand underserved by a U.S. carrier": American Airlines

"Haiti is the largest country in the Caribbean by demand unserved by a U.S. carrier," the airline said in a statement. "South Florida is home to the largest Haitian-American population in the U.S., and additional communities such as New York City and Orlando will also benefit from convenient one-stop connections to CAP."

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The restart of American's Haitian service was announced at the same time as another new route to La Chinita International Airport (MAR) in Venezuela's Maracaibo that is slated to start running from Miami on July 14.

American Airlines has already restarted its flight to Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS) in Caracas that it ran between 1987 and the Venezuelan airspace closure put in place by the Biden administration after the contested presidential election in 2019.

The two new routes are American's 99th and 100th destinations in the Caribbean, a region in which the airline has been working to carve out its network amid competition from other carriers.

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