FAA extends ban over Haiti's capital, widens airspace restrictions

Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald on Mar 4, 2026

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The Federal Aviation Administration is extending its ban on U.S. commercial airlines flying into Haiti’s gang-ridden capital, while also widening the restricted airspace beyond Port-au-Prince to include parts of southern and central Haiti as well as the Artibonite region.

“Gangs have increasingly conducted violent attacks in the Artibonite and Centre Departments north of the capital, necessitating adjustments to the area in which U.S. civil aviation operations are prohibited,” the FAA said in a revised notice issued this week. “This expanded and shifted gang operating area raises the risk from small arms fire to civil aviation operations at lower altitudes in these locations.”

The FAA said U.S. civil aviation operations are still barred from flying under 10,000 feet in specified areas due to the inability of Haiti’s “security forces’ to prevent attacks against aircraft in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding regions. The latest extension, whch will remain in place until Sept. 3, is the latest in a series of bans that were first imposed in November 2024 after three major U.S. carriers were struck by gang gunfire.

With the latest extension, Haiti will go almost two years without a major U.S. commercial aircraft landing at its main airport, Toussaint Louverture International Airport. An initial 30-day ban was put in place after Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways and American Airlines reported their airplanes had been hit by gunfire while flying over Haitian airspace. The prohibition was then subject to repeated extensions, and the U.S. State Department maintained a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” warning for U.S. citizens.

Haiti remains under State Department high alert as security forces continue to intensify their operations. On Wednesday, two police officers in the Aribonite region were injured and had to be airlifted to hospitals.

Although gang attacks have not been reported at Haiti’s two other smaller international airports in Les Cayes and Cap-Haïtien, U.S. carriers have continued to stay away. After the gunfire incident, Spirit Airlines suspended its service between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Cap-Haïtien, and American Airlines later released its remaining staff in the country.

The FAA notes that since September, U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations have opened fire on at least three aircraft within the Port-au-Prince. In May, the Trump administration labeled the country’s powerful Viv Ansanm gang coalition and another armed group, Gran Grif, in the neighboring Artibonite region as global and foreign terrorists.

Osprey Flight Solutions, a security advisory firm that assesses aviation risks, notes in its recent report that other foreign governments are maintaining the same kind of restrictions on international commercial flights to the Caribbean nation.

France has requested that its operators avoid serving Port-au-Prince Toussaint Louverture International Airport. The United Kingdom and Canada both recommend that operators not fly below 10,000 feet above Port-au-Prince “due to the potential risk to aviation from small-arms fire.”

The Dominican Republic, which closed its borders with Haiti more than two years ago, also has extended its long-standing notice suspending passenger and cargo flights between the two countries, which share the island of Hispaniola. The restriction remains in effect until March 28.