Summary
- US government announces charter flights to evacuate citizens amidst gang violence in Haiti.
- GlobalX operates sole A319 to CAP with brief stop in Miami for evacuation.
- Haiti lacks air force, armed forces disbanded, GlobalX grows fleet amid chaos.
The United States government has announced charter flights to evacuate its citizens during escalating gang violence that has left several dead and toppled Haiti’s government. After announcing flights planned for Saturday, the first of the flights was completed on Sunday.
The day earlier, the BBC reported that the US State Department was planning charter flights for US Passport holders to evacuate the conflict-ridden country. The announcement called for flights to depart Cap-Haitien (CAP) if the area remained stable.
Currently, while much of the situation remains unclear, as of press time, government-backed police forces were unable to maintain control of the country’s capital airport in Port-au-Prince (PAP). Members of the country’s G9 criminal organization, led by a Jimmy “Barbeque” Chérizier, had control of the majority of the capital, with the country’s elected leadership unable to return from overseas trips to solicit peacekeeping aid.
While control of CAP was tentatively held, after the announcement of charter flights was made, a sole A319, operated by Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX), would depart Washington Dulles Airport (IAD). GlobalX is a charter passenger and cargo airline with a fleet of six A321s, nine A320s, and the sole A319.
Photo: Kevin Porter I Shutterstock
From IAD, GlobalX’s 21-year-old A319 would fly to Raleigh-Durham (RDU) on Saturday night. Departing at 2:00 am local time, the aircraft would arrive at CAP at 8:00 am Sunday morning after a brief stop in Miami (MIA).
The aircraft would spend four hours on the ground at CAP before departing for MIA and arriving just after 2:00 pm local time, less than 24 hours after first departing IAD. The flight from CAP took a little over one hour.
It is unclear how many US citizens were evacuated on the charter flight or if the GlobalX A319 was performing the aforementioned service. For its part, GlobalX had entered the DOD Air Transportation Program to bid on US Department of Defense Contracts to move US military personnel and equipment a year earlier.
There hasn’t been traffic at Hati’s CAP or PAP airports in the last several days, nor are there currently scheduled flights, according to data provided by Flightradar24. Days earlier, Spirit Airlines, which usually flies to Cap-Haitien and Port-au Prince, had suspended its service effective March 5th.
Photo: Flightradar24.com
Airlines had previously flown humanitarian aid to the island in 2023. The aid at that time was to assist conditions that haven’t improved since a 2010 earthquake.
For its part, Haiti itself does not have an air force, and the armed forces of Haiti were disbanded after US operations in 1994 to dissolve the country’s military regime. Since the invasion, the country has only possessed small arms to threaten any aircraft operation.
GlobalX has recently grown its fleet of narrowbody aircraft. After only entering cargo operations in 2023, the charter airline has recently added at least three aircraft to its fleet.
Additionally, the charter airline operated flights to nearby Cuba regularly. These flights were by the airline’s A321 converted freighters and operated on behalf of another company, CubaMax. Continuing its growth, GlobalX had announced that it was eyeing passenger A330s for future fleet expansion.
