Airlines continue relief trips to Haiti but no plans yet for resuming commercial flights

US carriers not planning Haiti flights yet

DALLAS — American and Delta airlines say they have not set a date for resuming regular service to Haiti, and they continue to cancel flights for the next several days.

Both carriers have operated relief missions approved by U.S. government officials, and they have carried people out of Haiti on return flights, but they haven’t set target dates for resuming commercial flights.

Haiti’s lone international airport, in the capital of Port-au-Prince, is still not functioning normally since sustaining heavy damage in last month’s earthquake.

Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines, said the company was continuing to work on restarting commercial service.

In the meantime, American and sister carrier American Eagle, both units of AMR Corp., have continued to fly relief missions with the approval of the Defense Department. Some return flights have carried passengers approved by the State Department out of Haiti, Smith said.

Delta Air Lines Inc. spokesman Anthony Black said the airline operated its latest relief flight out of Atlanta on Tuesday.

The Boeing 737 delivered about 50 relief workers and 9,000 pounds of supplies to Haiti and returned with 80 people, mostly soldiers and medical personnel but also a few others who had been vetted by the State Department, he said.

A Delta contractor staff got its first chance to gauge conditions at the airport, where they found crumbling masonry in the terminal walls and extensive structural damage in ticket counter areas.

Delta continued to cancel flights three days out into the future — through Saturday, so far. Like his American Airlines counterpart, Black said Delta did not have a date yet for resuming regular service.