Jacmel Airport was the sixth busiest airport in Haiti by passenger volume before the

2010 Haitian earthquake A catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest department, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capi ...

, near the city of

Jacmel Jacmel (; ht, Jakmèl) is a commune in southern Haiti founded by the Spanish in 1504 and repopulated by the French in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est, 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Port-au-Prince across the Tiburon Peninsu ...

, on Haiti's south coast. The airport's time zone is

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

–5, and is in World Area Code region #238 (by the

U.S. Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...

). This airport is normally served by scheduled and charter airlines operating in the capital Port-au-Prince, and was opened in 2006 for travel to and from the capital and other destinations across the country.

History

Regular airline service started on 29 January 2005 with a flight from Tortug' Air. Subsequent to the 7.0 magnitude 12 January 2010 earthquake, the airport was first used by Canadian Forces CH-146 Griffon helicopters on 14 January, to reconnoitre the area for relief efforts prior to the arrival of the main disaster assistance forces to be deployed at Jacmel. Trees at the edge of the approach to the runway meant that C-130 Hercules transports were only able to land at the facility with great difficulty. The first Canadian Forces CC-130 Hercules flight (CFC 3923) into Jacmel Airport landed on 18 January, and flights by Canadian Forces CC-130 Hercules cargo aircraft were commenced thereafter. Canadian airfield engineers studied whether improvements to the runway would permit the heavier CC-177 Globemaster to land at Jacmel Airport. Canadian soldiers first arrived at the airport aboard CC-130 flights on Tuesday, 19 January. The identification of Jacmel as a possible site for use and the decision to use the airport was made by Canadian Major-General Yvan Blondin. 8 Air Communications and Control Squadron installed runway lighting on 19 January, enabling aircraft to land at night, with radar control of the airspace provided by the nearby . Opening the Jacmel airfield 24 hours-a-day was intended to help relieve congestion at

Toussaint Louverture International Airport Toussaint Louverture International Airport ( ht, Ayewopò Entènasyonal Tousen Louvèti, french: Aéroport International Toussaint Louverture) is an international airport in Tabarre, a commune of Port-au-Prince in Haiti. The airport is curren ...

in Port-au-Prince. An air traffic control facility was established at the airport, and as of 22 January the airport could accommodate a mix of 160 military and civilian fixed-wing and helicopter flights a day. Some degradation of the runway was discovered on 29 January 2010, as a result of the heavy use of the airstrip. At the north end of the airstrip, the pavement had starting to pothole. At the same time, plans have been established by the US military to shift military flights from

in Port-au-Prince to Jacmel, to allow civilian flights into Toussaint Louverture. It was expected that around 100 flights per day would be shifted from Port-au-Prince to Jacmel. The Port-au-Prince airport resumed commercial flights, after repairs to the terminal structures, on 19 February. After tree and terrain clearings to allow greater

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

overshoot areas, Jacmel Airport started accepting heavy-lift C-17 Globemasters from 20 February to facilitate disaster recovery efforts. By March 2010, flights had tapered off at Jacmel to 20–40 flights daily from an average of 80 per day during the heat of the relief operations, and from an original two to four per week prior to the earthquake. Airport staff received training with the Canadian Forces to upgrade their skills in handling traffic. In the wake of the Canadian Forces pullout, the airport could no longer process international flights, as no equipment remained to operate the control tower, nor heavy equipment to process the planes, or security to police supplies at the airport. As such, it has been handling only about a flight a day since the pullout, and has lost its certification for handling international flights. The airport was temporarily placed under the control of the

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Forc ...

in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. It was one of two operational airports near the epicentre of the earthquake, the other being

, which was placed under the temporary control of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

by the Haitian government. In March 2010, the

returned control to

Autorité Aéroportuaire Nationale The Autorité Aéroportuaire Nationale (AAN) is a government agency responsible for operating Haitian commercial airports. AAN ensures the creation, extension, management, operation and installation of airport facilities and civil aerodromes throu ...

Facilities

The airport was originally built to accommodate smaller commercial flight services, but no large aircraft.CBC News
"Canadian Forces Head To Port Town Of Jacmel"
18 January 2010 (accessed 19 January 2010) Prior to the January 2010 earthquake there was no air traffic control service at the airstrip, and its ramp area could only accommodate five aircraft at a time.Galloway, Gloria
"Canada's big task in Haiti starts on small airstrip"
Globe and Mail, Toronto, 19 January 2010. Accessed 19 January 2010. The maximum weight an aircraft could have and use the facility was 100,000 lbs.Winnipeg Free Press

Dan Lett, ''30 January 2010'' (accessed 31 January 2010) The runway was unlit and the airstrip lacked an

instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

and other radio navigation aids –used for landings in poor weather. As such, it could normally only support good weather ( VFR) daylight operations. La Presse (Montreal)
"Le Canada Coordonne Les Opérations à l'Aérodrome De Jacmel"
Malorie Beauchemin, 20 January 2010 (accessed 21 January 2010) The airport also hosted the local UN

MINUSTAH The United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (french: Mission des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti), also known as MINUSTAH, an acronym of the French name, was a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti that was in operation from 2004 ...

base. On September 9, 2010, a new terminal building was inaugurated by Public Works, Transport and Communications Minister, M. Jacques Gabriel, as well as by the General Manager of the

, M. Lionel Isaac. The runway had been resurfaced as well (asphalt, 1000 meters). Le Nouvelliste (Haiti
"Relance du tourisme: Jacmel se positionne"
, 15 September 2010 (accessed 8 october 2010)

Airlines and destinations

After many months with no scheduled services at the airport, as of 15 April 2022,

Sunrise Airways Sunrise Airways S.A. is a Haitian airline that provides scheduled passenger and charter flights. History Sunrise Airways was founded in 2010 and commenced flights on a charter basis on January 1, 2011. In February 2011, the carrier began schedul ...

is offering flights between Jacmel and Port-au-Prince three times per week.Haïti Libre
"Notice Sunrise Aiways : Port-au-Prince / Jacmel"
''18 March 2022'' (accessed 18 March 2022)

Statistics

Ground transportation

Most passengers arrive or depart from Jacmel by car via Route 208 located at the south end of the runway.

References

External links

JAK
at AirportFact.com {{authority control Airports in Haiti Jacmel 2010 Haiti earthquake relief