American Airlines Marks 40 Years of Serving Haiti

American Airlines Marks 40 Years of Serving Haiti

American Airlines has now been serving Haiti for 40 years. It flew its first fight, a Boeing 707, on March 2, 1971, into Port-au-Prince. Today, American offers six daily nonstop flights to Haiti -- three from Miami International Airport, two from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and one from New York’s JFK Airport. American operates flights into Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport with its Boeing 737 and 767 aircraft.

American Eagle currently offers daily service to Port-au-Prince with one flight through Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, using its ATR-72 aircraft. After the earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, American started flying in to Haiti the next day, ultimately flying 30 missions into Haiti, transporting relief workers, medical personnel and more than 400,000 pounds of humanitarian aid, while evacuating more than 700 people. These special relief flights, which were not a part of normal passenger operations, were coordinated in conjunction with relief organizations including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Yele Haiti and Airline Ambassadors International.

In conjunction with the Haitian government and international construction firm Odebrecht, American immediately began the process of repairing its airport facilities. Odebrecht’s team, along with 30 American employees who became assistants to the construction team, worked around the clock in order to repair the airline’s Port-au-Prince terminal so that American could resume commercial service less than six weeks later.