The Dominican airline Air Century, who had announced the postponement of its inaugural flight scheduled for 15 February between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, because according to it, the socio-political instability in Haiti https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16614-haiti-tourism-instability-in-haiti-force-air-century-to-cancel-its-first-flight.html hid in fact a completely different reason.

Indeed, since July 2015 Air Century that has all the permits from the "Junta de Aviacion Civil" (JAC) of the Dominican Republic, waiting in vain for the National Office of Civil Aviation (OFNAC) of Haiti grant it the authorizations required to regularly operate the road Joaquin Balaguer-Port-au-Prince and vice versa to Santo Domingo.

According to the Dominican company "after many visits to Haiti and loss of their documents repeatedly to OFNAC" Air Century has never received any response from Haiti to apply for a permit for a route that is currently provided by the Haitian company Sunrise Airways.

Air Century stresses that it has recently made an investment of more than $ 4.5 million for the acquisition of two Saab 340B aircraft designed to launch regular operations in different international destinations of importance whose Haiti in priority. Note that Sunrise Airways has also late February commissioned an aircraft recently purchased... https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16714-haiti-economy-sunrise-airways-add-a-new-aircraft-to-its-fleet.html

Seeing in this situation an unacknowledged form of trade protectionism from Haiti, Air Century in a note, asking the JAC to require the OFNAC the application of the bilateral agreement of 20 November 2014 of the Joint Bilateral Commission, which in its fourth section agrees of the trade reciprocity between the two countries. The Dominican company asks in case of refusal, the suspension of all permits to the Haitian airlines operating in the Dominican Republic.

Faced with these new revelations, one wonders if the temporary suspension of flights of the Sunrise Airways by the JAC on March 1 and their resumption a few days later, was well founded or if it was a first retaliation against the Haitian company, in what could be the beginning of a commercial air conflict between the two countries.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16784-haiti-economy-sunrise-airways-resumes-flights-to-dominican-republic.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16784-haiti-economy-sunrise-airways-resumes-flights-to-dominican-republic.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16714-haiti-economy-sunrise-airways-add-a-new-aircraft-to-its-fleet.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16614-haiti-tourism-instability-in-haiti-force-air-century-to-cancel-its-first-flight.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-16516-icihaiti-tourism-business-air-century-announces-regular-flights-to-haiti.html

SL/ HaitiLibre