A look back at the rise and fall of Haiti Trans Air, the post-Baby Doc airline | Did You Know?

Editors Note: Did you know is a THT series rooted in Haitian heritage and boundless curiosity, championed by the late Haitian music journalist and Haitian Times columnist Ralph Delley.

Did you know there was a Haitian-owned Airline in the 1980’s and 1990’s called Haiti Trans Air? 

Shortly after dictator Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier flew out of the country in 1986, a new Haitian-owned airline flew in. After the fall of the Duvalier regime, Haiti seemed ripe with opportunity for businesses to flourish and for international investment. Although still transitioning power, many Haitians were hopeful for the future after years of being a political outcast. 

In the travel industry, too, opportunities arose as Baby Doc’s father-in-law, business tycoon Ernest Bennett, left Haiti with the Duvaliers. Bennett, also entrenched in drug smuggling rings that burst open right before the end of the Duvalier reign, was said to be involved heavily in Haiti’s transportation sector, with some of his businesses purportedly entangled in the drug rings in the country. His ventures included a car import firm, an Airline and an air freight company, just to name a few (businesses clearly unsuitable for drug trafficking, of course.) 

Out from the dust of Haiti’s deep-pocketed elite fleeing the country,  came Haiti Trans Air. Records show the airline was created in 1986 and started operating a single Boeing 727 (the precursor of the boeing 757) in 1987 with flights to and from Kingston, Jamaica and San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

By 1992, the airline added the Douglas DC-8 to its fleet and was operating multiple flights daily and was noted as one of the main ways to fly to Haiti other than American Airlines. But as embargoes started to hit Haiti after the 1991 coup d’état ousting the democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the airline fighting to the end, eventually shutdown in 1995.

The owner of Haiti Trans Air, Charles Voigt, seemed to envelop a fighting spirit as years later he again launched a Haitian airline called Haiti Aviation, which shutdown abruptly in 2013. Passengers were stranded in Miami and Haiti at the height of the holiday season in December 2013 after the airline had only been running for five months. The abrupt end to the airline operations came due to many challenges, notably money disputes with the vendors from which they leased their aircraft. 

“I spent two years putting this together. I wanted to create a system that the Haitian people would feel good going to,” Voigt told Jacqueline Charles for the Miami Herald. 

A perk of the short-lived airline was that it shuttled customers safely to where they were going following their flight. Voigt released statements to the press up until early 2014, showing he was working to revive the airline, reimburse customers, and work out the money disputes with their aircraft carrier.

The dream of a Haitian-owned airline crossing international waters may not be dead yet as Sunrise Airways picks up steam. Founded by Philippe Bayard, Sunrise Airways recently expanded its international routes to include Miami. To help with the high cost of tickets and flight scarcity from Miami to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as well as to Cap-Haïtien, the home of Haiti’s second-largest airport. 

The airline which widely operates within Haiti also has international routes to Cuba, Panama, Guadeloupe and the Dominican Republic.  The airline is also expanding its services as of Nov. 13 within Haiti, due to the recent shutdown of the Toussaint-Louverture airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, until Nov. 18, 2024

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