Airline is the dream of many countries and it is a difficult dream to achieve for a small country like Haiti. The country is a wonderful place to visit and the reputation of different areas of the country is due to different reasons -- Jacmel in the south eastern part of the country is supposed to have a reputation for very good coffee. Another very famous product of the country is Voodoo and that is known by many people in the United States. They have all heard about it, do not know what it is, but would surely like to go to the place where it started from. The country is beautiful with wonderful sandy beaches, but the people there are very poor and their life certainly deserves an improvement. There are many places to visit even in Port au Prince and they can be listed as Marche de Fer or the Iron Market, Cathdrale de Port au Prince, Cathedrale De La Ste and Trinite. There are also distilleries which can give the tourist an opportunity to sample rums with flavors of coffee, coconut or hibiscus. From the capital it is important to visit Jacmel, and the trip makes one go through mountains on the road to this great town. On the way there are other places which can be visited. The entire country is full of French colonial architecture of the 19th century and they also have galleries where it is possible to buy good paintings. (A Guided Tour of Port-au-Prince & Jacmel, Haiti) The airline scene:

The flights into the airport are dominated by American Airlines, who have the cheapest fares from Miami, which is the point on mainland America from where the largest number of tourists comes. The lowest of the fares are about $309 for a trip. (Flight Results) There are a large number of flights into the country from all over the world as the tourists from all over the world would like to see this country and that is the source of passengers that an airline can think about. In spite of all its troubles, the country is a low user of power in any form and that leads it to become one of the few countries in the world that are still relatively free from pollution. That is one of the reasons why many persons would like to come to the country -- a respite from the polluting conditions in the U.S.A. At the same time, it is a very cheap place to live in and that would make it easier on the purses of the intending visitor. The costs of a trip to Haiti and back are also low, as the airfares are cheap.

The country has no petroleum, little potential for hydroelectricity and low supply of wood. Wood accounts for 75% of the energy consumption in the country. The situation in terms of energy is that it uses about the same amount of energy on a per capita level as Bangladesh and one seventeenth of Jamaica. The tourism industry reached its peak in 1980 when there were 139,000 tourists by air and 163,000 by sea. The net expenditure by the tourists also reached the peak in 1981 at a level of U.S.$44 million. There were many attractions for tourists in the 'land of mountains' and these were due to culture, excellent French cuisine, distinctive art, castles, hotels and a setting free of crime. Almost three quarters of the visitors were from United States. (Haiti - The Economy) As it can be seen, the visitors will provide a great help to the country, in terms of increasing its income and providing employment to its people. This is certainly needed as many people are unemployed now and only when they can be suitably employed will the country be able to progress further.

The relations of Haiti to USA:

In the history of Haiti, a nineteen year period during which United States occupied Haiti seemed to be most prosperous. This period from 1915 to 1934 brought a lot of benefits. The administrators from United States controlled fiscal and monetary policies in a manner that benefited the country. There was building of major roads, automatic telephone exchanges in Port au Prince, construction of bridges, dredging of harbors, building of schools, establishment of medical facilities and other important public works were attended to. The economic advisors continued to advise the country till 1941 and there was some growth till 1950s. The infrastructure was developed and many products were assembled in Haiti and these were garments, electronics, baseballs, games, sporting goods,

Even till 1980s there was production of garments. The biggest job was for electronic items that were sub-contracted for the Department of Defense. The political situation had started worsening and this caused most of the business organizations to shift their operations to Mexico or the Free Zone of San Isidro in Dominican Republic. (Haiti - The Economy)
Now there is unrest in Haiti and the country was granted foreign aid of $55 million in 2004. Then there was a disaster on February 18, 2004 which increased the aid by another $0.54 million, and the costs of the U.S. military. The plan for 2005 was for a help of $54 million. Yet when the agreement was made among the helping nations there was a pledge of more than $1 billion during these two years. From United States also there was a commitment to help with $230 million during the two years of 2004 and 2005. (Haiti: Developments and U.S. Policy Since 1991 and Current Congressional Concerns)

The reason why nothing is happening is that there are a lot of disputes as to who should be the leader of the country. The leader for the country was Aristide and he came back for a second term in office as President. Yet he was not received well during his second term and there was a lot of tension and violence during his entire period in office for the second term. Finally he left office on February 29, 2004 when the opposition did not agree to negotiate with him and the armed forces had taken over half of the territory of the country. This led to the establishment of an interim government with Gerard La Tortue as Prime Minister. The economic difficulties of the country have made it an important point for transshipment of Narcotics that are sent from South America to United States. This information is given in March 2003 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report of the State Department of United States. (Haiti: Developments and U.S. Policy Since 1991 and Current Congressional Concerns)

There are reasons why Haiti has become such a good point for transshipment of narcotics. The main advantage for the narcotics dealers is that the country is located between South America and United States. The country also has a lot of its coasts and the entire border with Dominican Republic which are not regularly patrolled. This makes the job of the narcotics traffickers much easier. At the same time, the country does not have a long history of democracy and the problems that the country has faced since 1997 has only weakened all the controls that it had. There were further problems due to the natural disasters during fall of 2004. These natural problems killed nearly 2,000 people and left another 200,000 homeless. This compelled the government in Haiti to ask for Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in October 2004. This would stop the Haitians living in United States, but without proper documents, back to Haiti. (Haiti: Developments and U.S. Policy Since 1991 and Current Congressional Concerns) In short there are a lot of difficulties for the people of Haiti and they certainly need a method of earning more money so that the nation can regain its pride.

The Plan:

The plan is to start an airline, as this is going to help the people of Haiti gain a lot of useful employment. The main reason for starting the airline now is that many countries have promised help to the country, but do not know how to give the money in a way that will help the country and at the same time not waste the money. The advantage with starting an airline is that the money will be mainly invested in the airplanes and these will be quite safe if they are not left in Haiti at the end of the day's flying. For other damages that can occur to them, it is possible to get an appropriate insurance policy so that any damages to them can be collected from the insurance company. Also the main risks of an airplane are due to the quality of the people flying them and this can be assured by getting the pilots from the country which provides the money for starting the airline. There is going to be a requirement of a relatively large sum of money. (Airline Faces Turbulence En route to Takeoff)

The minimum cost is expected to be around $50…