Haitian airline to launch non-stop service to Orlando, Florida

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Apr. 13, CMC   – Haitian airline, Sunrise Airways will launch nonstop service between Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Orlando, Florida beginning in October, the carrier’s first-ever direct service from the Caribbean nation to the United States.
The flight will also be the first to connect Orlando International Airport with Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport.
In a release, Sunrise officials said the new scheduled flights will commence October 17 subject to government approval.
“As Haiti’s hometown airline, Sunrise is especially proud to be the first to bring the convenience of nonstop service between Port-au-Prince and Orlando to the Central Florida market,” said Philippe Bayard, the company’s president.
“For us, as an airline, and more importantly for the sizable Haitian community living in the Orlando area, these new flights are a tremendous development.”
The airline has also offers intra-Caribbean routes between Haiti and Cuba, Jamaica, The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and the Turks & Caicos.
Haitian tourism officials are seeking to re-ignite the tourist arrivals surge was absent in 2016 after the country posted strong visitor growth each year between 2013 and 2015.
After welcoming 1,189,269 visitor arrivals in 2015, a 5.2 percent increase over 2014, arrivals declined significantly in 2016 according to Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) data.