Above: a Sunrise Airways plane

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti’s Sunrise Airways has been awarded a “Part 129” operating permit from the Dominican Republic’s Institute of Civil Aviation, enabling the company to begin regularly-scheduled flights between Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo.

The move also helps pave the way for additional expansion to other Caribbean destinations, the company said.

“We’ve taken another big step forward with this announcement, one that will have a significant impact on our ability to successfully grow our route network in the months to come,” said Sunrise Airways President Philippe Bayard. “My hat goes off to our dedicated team whose commitment to excellence in every phase of our operations made this possible. We’re proving something that many would’ve likely thought impossible not long ago: that Haiti can produce a world-class airline.”

The new service to Santo Domingo follows existing regular flights between Port-au-Prince and Santiago de Cuba.

Sunrise Airways already operates 52 weekly scheduled domestic flights between Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien.

“Even as we were working toward Part 129 certification, we were already in expansion mode, increasing our domestic flights between Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien to meet consumer demand,” Bayard said. “Now we’re looking at acquiring larger aircraft to better connect the Caribbean.”

Sunrise currently operates flights on 19-seat Jetstream 32 planes.