Haiti's Hometown Airline Spreads Its Wings

Haitian tourism is not only expanding on the ground, but in the air.

The dual island nation's recent growth as a Caribbean travel destination includes not only new hotels, resorts and refurbished attractions but regularly scheduled airline service from a home-grown, major carrier.

Privately owned, Haitian-based Sunrise Airways launched operations in 2010 as the first and only Haitian-owned airline to be awarded a Part 129 Operating Permit from the Dominican Republic, which enabled the airline to grow its route network outside of Haiti's borders to multiple points to and from the Dominican Republic.

For now, the company aims to "meet the progressively expanding demand for safe, reliable and affordable air travel throughout the Western Caribbean," with daily scheduled service across the region. Earlier this year, the airline launched its first-ever flights to Havana. In October, Sunrise will begin offering flights to Orlando, Florida.

Operating from Port au Prince, Sunrise serves Santiago and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Havana, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba, Cuba; and Cap Haitien, Haiti. Flights to Guyana, Kingston, Jamaica; Providenciales, Turks & Caicos, St. Maarten and Nassau, Bahamas are planned for the 2017 to 2018 season, pending government approval.

Sunrise's service also provides improved connectivity for North Americans traveling in Haiti. The airline's daily, half-hour flights to coastal Cap Haitien allow Port au Prince-based travelers to easily visit must-see attractions, including the Citadelle fortress and Sans Souci Palace.

I spoke with Richard Rose, Sunrise's chief operating officer, to gain an inside look at this innovative new carrier.

TP: What encouraged Sunrise Airiways to opt for an expansion at this time?

RR: The Caribbean, in general, and the Western Caribbean, in particular, has long lacked reliable, passenger-friendly air service uniting the region's leading centers of commerce and cultural heritage in such a way as to better spur meaningful economic exchange and multi-island leisure travel opportunities.

At the same time, there remain underserved markets in North and South America anxious for increased service to the Caribbean. From the start, Sunrise Airways was envisioned to meet these needs, taking Caribbean aviation to new heights of excellence.

TP: What new services/routes will the airline's new A320 aircraft allow Sunrise to offer?

RR: Already in 2017 we've expanded our service to Cuba, launching new nonstop service to Havana to complement our pre-existing flights to Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba. Within the broader Caribbean region, we're now in a position to serve points throughout the southern and eastern Caribbean.

We've also initiated discussions toward launching regular charter service to select gateways in South America. And, of course, we're aggressively positioning ourselves for growth in the U.S. market. Per our recent announcement, we intend to launch service to Orlando in October 2017, pending government approval, with additional U.S. gateways to follow.

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TP: What are your most popular flights/routes?

RR: Our service from Port-au-Prince to Cuba and Santo Domingo has become essential to corporate movers and shakers in the Western Caribbean, uniting three primary regional business centers - Havana, Port-au-Prince, and Santo Domingo - like never before. Adding Kingston (Jamaica) to the mix, as we hope to do in the future, will further spur the growth of commerce in the region, while also creating exciting new opportunities for leisure travel to the Caribbean's great centers of history, theater, culture and nightlife.

TP: When do you plan to launch direct service to North America?

RR: We intend to launch nonstop flights between Port-au-Prince and Orlando on October 17, 2017, pending government approval. The route is big news, not just for us as an airline, but also for the large population of Haitian Diaspora living in Central Florida as ours will be the first nonstop flights to Haiti from the Orlando market.

TP: How difficult was it to launch a major airline in Haiti? Are there challenges associated with operating an airline in what traditionally was an under-served country?

RR: The airline business is tough everywhere. Haiti presents its own unique challenges, though, [and] we've taken a proactive dual-pronged approach that has yielded success.

Number one, we've built a team of highly experienced aviation industry pros and technology experts. Sunrise Airways leadership includes alumni from a diverse group of global airlines, including LOT Polish Airlines, Air Jamaica, IBC, Silver Airways, Centralwings and OLT Express Poland, among others. This diversity has served us well, enabling us to borrow best practices from a variety of leading carriers and fine-tune them into a unique hybrid corporate structure ideally suited to provide the best value proposition for the Caribbean region.

Number two, we've taken great care in developing and cultivating positive relationships within the public and private sectors everywhere we fly, ensuring that our vision and mission are shared among key political and business groups throughout the Caribbean. Our success is the Caribbean's success, a point that defines every aspect of our development plan. This unique approach has enabled us to get to this point and will surely guide our continued growth into the future.

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TP: How would you characterize travel to Haiti, a country that has expanded its tourism marketing in recent years?

RR: As Haiti's hometown airline, no one makes the charms of our magical country more easily accessible than Sunrise Airways. Overall, the tourism product continues to evolve in a positive direction, with progressively new and more modern full-service resorts and hotels like the Marriott-Port-au-Prince and the Royal Decameron Resort elevating the hospitality sector to the level of neighboring destinations.

At the same time, unique natural wonders only found in Haiti, like Bassin Bleu, and historical treasures like the Citadelle, Sans-Souci Palace and the one-of-a-kind artifacts found in Haiti's National Museum continue to rate Haiti as a bucket-list destination for true lovers of history.

In the near-future, we intend to launch a tour operator extension of Sunrise Airways that will make experiencing the best of all that Haiti-and our other destinations throughout the Caribbean-safe, easy, and affordable.

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