Overview:
Sunrise Airways will start flying from Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince to Miami in mid-September.
CAP-HAITIEN — A travel dilemma many Haitians have shared for years – ‘only Spirit travels from Cap-Haitien to the United States’ – may be alleviated as early as next month when Sunrise Airways begins a new flight service.
Sunrise announced Tuesday that it will offer Port-au-Prince to Miami legs as of Sept. 15 and Cap-Haitien to Miami flights starting Sept. 26. The Caribbean airline based in Port-au-Prince, founded in 2010, will operate in Florida after a five year hiatus. It currently flies passengers around Haiti, Panama, Guadeloupe, Cuba and Dominican Republic.
“Ready, set, Miami!,” Sunrise Airways wrote on a Facebook post on Aug. 15.
Haitians have long complained about having Spirit as the only choice for flights from Cap-Haitien to the U.S. and back, particularly because they said Spirit’s tickets have become pricier than usual.
“Finally, people from Okap will catch their breaths from the price of Spirit’s tickets,” Ruth Compere of Cap-Haitien, commented on Facebook. “Now we have more than one choice [sic], I’m happy.”
A Cap-Haitien to Fort Lauderdale ticket on Spirit currently costs about $1,500. Some Haitians fear that Sunrise Airways tickets will also be expensive.
“Now how much will those tickets cost?” Gaelle Bazile commented on Facebook.
Sunrise Airways currently goes from Les Cayes to Port-au-Prince, at a cost of about $130. A price Haitians have been lamenting about since they do not have U.S. dollars and it is only a 30-minute flight.
It is unclear when booking for the Miami flights will be available. Here’s a tentative scheduled announced:
- Cap-Haitien to Miami flights on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
- Port-au-Prince to Miami on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Both flights will be in an Airbus A320, a narrow-body aircraft. Sunrise Airways previously operated in Miami and Orlando in 2017 and 2018, according to Aviacionline.