UN welcomes decision by Dominican Republic to reopen airspace with Haiti

The Unit­ed Na­tions is wel­com­ing re­ports that the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic will re­open its air­space to Haiti, restor­ing flights be­tween San­to Domin­go and Cap-Haï­tien that could be­gin as ear­ly as next month.

“We ex­pect the re­open­ing of the air cor­ri­dor to help aid agen­cies move staff and sup­plies in­to north­ern Haiti,” said UN spokesman Stéphane Du­jar­ric.

Last week­end, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and Haiti, which share the Caribbean is­land of His­pan­io­la, an­nounced in a joint state­ment that they have agreed to re­open their air­space, al­low­ing flights be­tween their coun­tries for the first time in more than two years.

“This mea­sure seeks to fa­cil­i­tate mo­bil­i­ty, boost eco­nom­ic ties and strength­en re­la­tions be­tween both coun­tries,” ac­cord­ing to the joint state­ment is­sued af­ter a meet­ing be­tween for­eign min­is­ters Rober­to Ál­varez of the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and Raina Forbin of Haiti.

The Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic closed its air­space with Haiti in March 2024, cit­ing the high lev­els of in­se­cu­ri­ty in the French-speak­ing Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) coun­try fol­low­ing the as­sas­si­na­tion of Hait­ian Pres­i­dent Jovenel Moïse on Ju­ly 7, 2021.

The Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic had on­ly per­mit­ted hu­man­i­tar­i­an flights.

Du­jar­ric told the dai­ly UN press brief­ing that the UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al An­to­nio Guter­res has wel­comed “the re­newed di­a­logue and co­op­er­a­tion ef­forts be­tween the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and Haiti”.

UNIT­ED NA­TIONS, Apr 21, CMC

CMC/ro/ir/2026