Haiti’s Antoine Simon Airport Welcomes International Flights Amid Port-Au-Prince Unrest

As an additional transportation hub, the Antoine Simon Airport is expected to heighten the local economy as well as provide new ways for aid distribution

Antoine Simon Airport in the southwest city of Les Cayes in Haiti is prepared to take on international flights as commercial airlines have paused flights to Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince amid growing gang violence, NBC News reports.

Nonprofits and travel leaders call the addition “really exciting” as Antoine Simon is Haiti’s third international airport. A number of groups that provide aid to Haitians have had to stop their work as the capital city has been stricken with gang violence and political turmoil. In addition, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration extended a ban on U.S. flights to Port-au-Prince until March 12.

The Executive Director of the Colorado-based nonprofit Locally Haiti, Wynn Walent, says it is important for work in the southwest region to be done as many people focus on work in Port-au-Prince. “It’s really exciting. For understandable reasons, folks are focused on the challenges in Port-au-Prince, but there is so much that can be done in the south,” Walent said.

“This could be a big step in that direction.”

Mercy Corps’ Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Hugh Aprile, agrees with Walent, saying, “Much of the needs are in the southern peninsula.” “For us, this will be helpful,” he said.

According to the Associated Press, the airport is named after the Haitian president who led a rebellion in the early 1900s. After operating fully for close to 20 years, renovations for a runway extension started in 2013. As an additional transportation hub, the development is expected to heighten the local economy as well as provide new ways for aid distribution. Other leaders see the development as a ploy for tourism growth. “Infrastructure is the basis of a country’s economic development,” the president of Haiti’s transitional presidential council, Leslie Voltaire, said when he visited the airport for the renovation unveiling.

Toussaint Louverture International Airport remains open, but commercial flights are banned from flying in as violence has injured a number of people. In November 2024, a Spirit Airlines flight was allegedly struck with gunfire, injuring a flight attendant. The incident resulted in the U.S. State Department issuing a warning of “gang-led efforts” in Haiti and cautioned Americans not to travel there.

With gangs controlling close to 85% of the capital city, main roads have been blocked, making it difficult for aid organizations like Action Against Hunger, which lost funding for a nutrition and feeding program that served 13,000 people in Haiti’s rural northeast and south due to recent USAID cuts, from getting in and out.