American Airlines (AAL) is suspending service to Haiti indefinitely after what it initially telegraphed as a temporary pause. CBS News reports that the move follows an incident last month when a pair of U.S. carriers discovered bullet holes in their aircraft.
“American has made the difficult decision to suspend daily service between Miami (MIA) and Port-au-Prince, Haiti (PAP)” American said in a statement provided to Quartz. “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.”
In November, planes operated by Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways (JBLU) received gunfire. The Spirit plane had been rerouted to the Dominican Republic, and the JetBlue plane was back in the United States. No passengers were injured, but a flight attendant on the Spirit plane suffered minor injuries.
Both airlines had said they would pause flights to Haiti after the incidents; the Federal Aviation Administration told airlines to do so for 30 days. American Airlines did so as well, though the airline industry news site Simply Flying reported at first that the pause would only be lasting until February. American told Quartz that it had been operating one flight a day between Haiti and Miami, which has a large Haitian and Haitian-American popluation.
Haiti has struggled with political instability and violence since its founders won their independence from France in 1804. For decades, armed groups have fought for control with a series of governments installed by a foreign bloc that includes the U.S., France, and Canada.
An op-ed last year from the The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti directly links the country’s loss of sovereignty with its current turmoils.
“Although international analysts often date Haiti’s crisis to the July 2021 assassination of President [Jovenel] Moïse, it has been brewing for far longer,” the group wrote. “For over a decade, individuals associated with the Pati Ayisyen Tèt Kale (PHTK) political party have deliberately dismantled Haiti’s democratic institutions, corrupted its accountability mechanisms, and built up gangs as instruments of political violence, all while continuing to receive international support.”
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Publish date : 2024-12-09 03:39:00
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