Port au Prince Flight Ban Runs to March 7
U.S. commercial air access into Port au Prince, Haiti remains effectively shut down under an FAA restriction that runs through March 7, 2026. The practical result for travelers is that standard U.S. airline itineraries into Toussaint Louverture International Airport (PAP) are not operating, and most trips now require indirect routings and a more complex ground plan. Travelers with urgent needs should plan around alternate gateways, build larger buffers, and treat same day connections as a failure point unless everything is on one protected ticket.
The Port au Prince flight ban keeps normal U.S. commercial service from restarting even when there is passenger demand, because the restriction is driven by security risk, not by airline scheduling preference. Reporting on the FAA action points to threats that are most acute during takeoff, landing, and ground operations, when aircraft are low, slow, and predictable. That matters for travelers because the disruption is not a typical short term cancellation wave, it is a structural constraint that forces a different routing strategy until the restriction changes.
Who Is Affected
The most affected travelers are those whose plans depended on flying into Port au Prince on U.S. carriers, or on itineraries that used Port au Prince as the anchor for business, humanitarian, family, or onward domestic travel within Haiti. The U.S. Department of State notes that U.S. commercial flights are not currently operating to and from Port au Prince, and references an FAA NOTAM prohibiting U.S. air carrier flights to Port au Prince due to instability.
Travelers connecting through Caribbean hubs can also feel the impact, even if Haiti is not their final destination. When passengers are forced onto longer, multi segment routings, they concentrate demand onto specific flights and days, which can tighten remaining seat inventory and push up last minute pricing on popular connecting banks. That ripple tends to show up first in the same small set of alternate gateways, then spreads outward as airlines protect their core schedules by prioritizing reaccommodation for disrupted passengers.
There is also an operational split between Port au Prince and other airports in Haiti. Reuters has reported that while Port au Prince remains restricted, the FAA has previously allowed flights to several airports outside the capital, reflecting a risk picture that is not uniform across the country. In practice, whether those options help you depends on where you actually need to be, and whether you can complete the onward leg safely and reliably.
What Travelers Should Do
First, rebuild your trip around the assumption that you will not be flying commercially into Port au Prince before March 7, 2026. Price and schedule routings to alternate gateways, then add conservative transfer time, because every added segment increases the chance of a misconnect. If you must travel, plan for at least one flexible overnight on the outbound and the return, and do not rely on same day, last flight connections that leave you no recovery path.
Second, decide your rebooking threshold before you start moving pieces around. If your current itinerary depends on Port au Prince arrival, and you cannot protect the onward chain on a single ticket, the safer decision rule is to rebook to an alternate gateway and shift critical appointments by a day, rather than gambling on tight same day timing. If your purpose is discretionary, the rational move is postponement, because the restriction is tied to security threats that can change quickly and can also affect ground mobility even if you do manage to arrive.
Third, monitor the next 24 to 72 hours for three specific signals. Watch the FAA restriction status for any amendment or extension beyond March 7, 2026, because that is the decision that governs whether U.S. commercial service can return. Watch your airline for waiver language, because waivers determine whether you can change dates or reroute without penalties. Watch conditions on the ground through official advisories, because the Department of State continues to warn about severe security conditions, and the reliability of transfers is as important as the flight itself.
How It Works
FAA flight restrictions like this are designed to reduce risk to U.S. civil aviation when the threat environment makes normal operations unsafe, especially in predictable phases of flight such as approach, landing, departure, and time on the ground. In this case, reporting describes concerns about gangs targeting aircraft with small arms and drones, which makes low altitude operations and airport surface time the critical exposure points.
The first order effect is straightforward, you cannot book normal U.S. commercial service into Port au Prince, so passenger flows reroute. The second order ripples are where trips fail. As demand shifts into alternate gateways, hotels, ground transport, and short haul feeder capacity can tighten, and travelers end up stitching together separate tickets and overland transfers that are more fragile than a single protected itinerary. When one segment slips, the rest of the chain breaks, which creates missed international connections, unplanned overnights, and expensive walk up rebooking, often in places where inventory is already constrained by the diversion surge.