Haiti-to-Miami flights are getting cut back and may now cost more than $3,000. Here’s why

If dealing with the constant threat of violent criminal gangs and kidnappings in Haiti wasn’t bad enough, try finding a reasonably priced fare to fly out of the country to Miami on American Airlines.

The U.S.-based carrier, which had reduced its direct flights to Haiti even before the COVID-19 pandemic threw air travel into a tailspin, is planning to cut back its once-a-day flights to Port-au-Prince from seven days to six starting next month.

The reduction comes as travelers flying out of Port-au-Prince on American see one-way tickets priced at more than $3,000 for a flexible business class seat, which sometimes is the only seat available. The high fare has Haitians in sticker shock as they admit to being “confused by the phenomenon” and accuse the airline of price gouging.

“Stealing money from people fleeing a war zone should be illegal,” John Cazeau tweeted.

Cazeau, who lives in Boston but owns property in Fort Lauderdale, is flying JetBlue on Thursday for $292 from Boston round trip. He said in a follow-up interview with the Miami Herald that the fares being charged for Haiti travel make no sense.

“They are applying the same economic principles of the western world to a destitute and failed state,” he said. “Imagine AA asking Ukrainians to pay $3,400 to fly out of a war zone ....How can AA justify that fair? Please enlighten me.”

Earlier this month, American began flying a much smaller Airbus 319 with 128 seats, instead of a Boeing 737-800 with 172 seats, on its Miami-Port-au-Prince route. The loss of the 44 additional seats was felt almost immediately as one-way flights out of the Haitian capital shot up to anywhere between $1,091 with a week’s planning to $3,404 for a last-minute airfare. Meanwhile, tickets from Miami to Port-au-Prince are as low as $124.

Laura Masvidal, a spokeswoman for American Airlines, said the change to an Airbus A319 was “a decision that was made as part of the continuous evaluation of our network and available resources.”

“We are currently operating one daily flight between MIA and PAP. Due to soft demand on our MIA-PAP service, on May 9 we will reduce our service to six weekly flights until August,” she added.

In comparison, JetBlue, which shows no available seats out of Port-au-Prince into Fort Lauderdale until May 3, has $589 one-way tickets out of the Haitian capital. After late May the cost drops to $160 one way. Low-cost Spirit Airlines, the only other U.S.-bound airline flying out of Port-au-Prince, also has no seats available until May 4. The one-way price on that day into Fort Lauderdale, however, is $1,043.

With such high airfares, U.S.-bound travelers are either forced to dig deep in their pockets, use frequent-flyer miles if they have them or fly to the Dominican Republic via Haiti’s Sunrise Airways. A Miami-bound ticket onboard a bigger American Airlines flight from Santo Domingo to Miami is $257 for a basic economy next Tuesday and $493 for business class.

The reduction in American Airlines’ service and the lack of availability of seats on other carriers have coincided with a higher demand among Haitians looking to fly out of the country, especially those who have qualified to travel to the United States under President Biden’s recently launched two-year humanitarian parole program. The program allows nationals of Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to temporarily migrate to the U.S. if they have an approved financial sponsor.

Haiti’s Tourism Minister Cassandra Francois told the Herald that the government is very concerned about the high fares and cutbacks, and she is currently in talks with the airlines to add more flights. On Tuesday, Francois said she spoke with the representative of American Airlines for Haiti regarding the high cost of its tickets compared with the rest of the Caribbean region.

The representative, she said, informed her that the airlines needed the Boeing 737-800 for long haul destinations and therefore replaced it with the smaller AirBus.

“As a result, the company increased the prices in proportion to high demands from Haiti. That is not fair to the potential tourists,” she said.

“Knowing that there is not a high frequency of flights to Haiti, in comparison to other destinations in the Caribbean and regarding the high demand, this situation impacts our economy and demotivates the diaspora,” Francois said. “They just need more planes.”

She said she plans to ask American in a follow-up meeting to not only reduce the ticket prices but to add another flight, even if it is a small plane, in order to have two flights per day.

Francois said she also spoke with a representative of Spirit Airlines to see about the possibility of adding another flight on its Fort-Lauderdale to Cap-Haïtien route during the summer, given that it is the only U.S. based-carrier that services the northern Haitian city. “We welcome American Airlines to do the same,” she said.