ORLANDO, Fla. — JetBlue Airways on Thursday began offering nonstop flights from Orlando International Airport to Port-au-Prince's Toussaint Louverture International Airport, the airline said.
The new route, which was announced in April, is JetBlue's first nonstop service between Central Florida and Haiti, company spokesman Brian Mazur said.
Katie Walsh, principal of Winter Park's St. Margaret Mary Catholic School, said she often travels to the island for missionary work.
Walsh said the new route could help a city that is continuing to rebuild after the 2010 earthquake.
"Every time I go back, I am astonished by the poverty and the squalor that I see, particularly in Port-au-Prince," she said.
The announcement of the new route comes weeks before the expiration of Temporary Protected Status, a humanitarian program that has allowed about 58,000 Haitians to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation.
"The life after 2010 is not good. It is not good," said Lhomond Orelus, who moved to Orlando from Haiti in 2013. "That's why we are happy, because we need our TPS. But we need more than TPS."
The first flight to Haiti departed from Orlando at 10:20 a.m.
Cox Media Group
