Sunrise Airways

Airline overview

Sunrise Airways S.A. is a privately owned regional carrier based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, generally recorded as founded in 2010, with its main hub at Port-au-Prince Toussaint Louverture International Airport (IATA code PAP). Its IATA two-letter code is S6, its ICAO three-letter code is KSZ and its website is sunriseairways.net. Sunrise serves mainly domestic Haitian routes and regional links within the Caribbean and is one of the few local carriers still operating in the Haitian market.

Haiti occupies the western part of Hispaniola, the second largest island in the Caribbean, and road transport inside the country is constrained by terrain and infrastructure, so air services carry real weight in moving people and consolidating cargo. Around its Port-au-Prince hub Sunrise has built a regional network linking the main Haitian cities and reaching into neighbouring Caribbean countries. Because security and operating conditions in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere have fluctuated, the airline suspended domestic scheduled flights for a period; on 12 June 2025 Sunrise reached an agreement with the Haitian government to resume domestic scheduled operations, and the network has been recovering since.

In business terms Sunrise is not an intercontinental freighter operator but a regional airline that carries freight in the belly holds of turboprops and small regional jets. The fleet is built around the Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia twin turboprop, with regional jets on some Caribbean international sectors and small commuter types on dense domestic routes. Range and payload limits keep its operations inside Haiti and the surrounding Caribbean, and it has no trans-Pacific capability.

For Chinese shippers, Sunrise offers no direct flight from China to Haiti. The standard path for cargo exported from China to Haiti and the Caribbean is to load at a major Chinese gateway, transit a south-eastern US gateway at Fort Lauderdale (FLL) or Miami (MIA), and then connect on the Sunrise Caribbean belly network from the US gateway or a Caribbean regional hub to Port-au-Prince and domestic Haitian destinations. Sunrise's role on that path is regional carriage and distribution at the Caribbean end.

Haiti has long needed both reconstruction materials and imported consumer goods. Chinese exports to Haiti are dominated by consumer goods, textiles and garments, footwear, small appliances, plastic products, hardware tools and general trade goods, with aid programs and remittance-funded trade adding further flows. From its Port-au-Prince hub Sunrise distributes cargo to Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes, Jérémie and other domestic cities and connects to Caribbean island markets, giving Chinese goods a belly-hold air channel into Haiti and the northern Caribbean through a south-eastern US gateway.

Note that Sunrise carries freight in regional aircraft belly holds, so capacity per flight is limited and it suits small to medium lots of consumer goods and urgent reconstruction items rather than bulk heavy cargo. Given the special operating environment in Haiti, ground handling and customs conditions at Port-au-Prince airport must be confirmed before booking. Goodhope, as the forwarding contact at the China origin, can combine the China leg, the south-eastern US connection and the Sunrise Caribbean leg into one continuous waybill.

China contact

Sunrise Airways publishes no office of its own in China; contact its local agent in China or ask Goodhope to make the connection. As a regional carrier focused on Haiti and the Caribbean, Sunrise has no place of business or cargo terminal in China and does not accept booking instructions from China direct. Chinese shippers wanting to use Sunrise belly capacity should place bookings, documents and capacity confirmations through a company holding an international freight forwarding licence.

Goodhope Logistics (China) Limited can act as the forwarding contact at the China origin, taking the shipper's instruction and dealing with the Sunrise cargo department in Port-au-Prince and its ground agent at the south-eastern US gateway. The shipper need only provide the departure airport, destination, pieces, weight and dimensions and cargo nature, and Goodhope handles the capacity request and waybill issue for the China leg, the US gateway connection and the Sunrise Caribbean leg. Rates, tight capacity and special cargo declarations are best handled through one point of contact, so that differences in communication and document format do not delay the booking.

Shippers can also use the Sunrise website, sunriseairways.net, for network and handling guidance. Given the particular operating environment in Haiti, Goodhope can provide local agent details at the booking stage for ground handling, customs clearance and pickup at Port-au-Prince, so that the Chinese shipper and the overseas consignee complete the movement under one waybill.

Aircraft types

The Sunrise fleet in service is built around the Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia twin turboprop, which covers both dense domestic Haitian routes and Caribbean international sectors. The choice of type matches runway conditions and traffic volumes at airports in Haiti and the Caribbean. The cargo configuration and main use of each type are set out in the table.

The fleet information is compiled from Sunrise public operating records and civil aviation tracking data; actual numbers in service and configurations change with the season and are subject to the carrier's confirmation on the day of booking.

As the main turboprop on Sunrise domestic routes, the EMB-120 Brasilia suits belly-hold carriage on short, high-frequency flights inside Haiti and can take garments, footwear, general merchandise and loose general trade cargo. The ERJ 145 regional jet cruises faster and links Port-au-Prince with the French Caribbean islands and Curaçao, where distance is greater, giving it an edge on time-sensitive cargo. Small commuter types such as the Jetstream 32 mainly handle high-density domestic top-up with limited capacity.

Because all these types are regional aircraft, belly-hold payload and hold dimensions are objectively limited. Oversize or overweight cargo is not normally carried direct on Sunrise regional aircraft; such cargo is better switched at the south-eastern US gateway to another widebody belly or freighter option and connected to Port-au-Prince from there as conditions allow.

Airports served in China and schedules

Sunrise Airways has no scheduled service or cargo destination in China. As a regional carrier concentrated on Haiti and the Caribbean, its reach starts at Port-au-Prince and extends at most to neighbouring Caribbean countries, and it has neither the aircraft nor the route rights for trans-Pacific operation. Chinese shippers using Sunrise capacity must first move cargo to a south-eastern US gateway such as Fort Lauderdale (FLL) or Miami (MIA) and then connect on Sunrise belly capacity to Port-au-Prince and domestic Haitian destinations. The table lists the main Chinese gateways that can feed the first leg.

Because Sunrise does not itself fly the China leg, the Chinese airports in the table are not Sunrise destinations but gateways where Chinese shippers can consolidate cargo. Schedules on the China to Fort Lauderdale or Miami leg are set by the intercontinental carrier flying it, while Sunrise schedules follow its Caribbean timetables. Capacity on both legs has to be checked and locked together by Goodhope at booking. Times are local, schedules change with the season and the carrier's confirmation on the day of booking governs.

International air freight services from China

Shipping from China, connecting at a south-eastern US gateway and joining the Sunrise Caribbean belly network, Chinese export cargo can reach Haiti itself (Port-au-Prince PAP, Cap-Haïtien CAP, Les Cayes CYA, Jérémie JEE) and the Caribbean region (Curaçao CUR, Fort-de-France FDF in Martinique, Pointe-à-Pitre PTP in Guadeloupe, Saint Kitts and others). Those Haitian cities and northern Caribbean islands form the core of the Sunrise network.

In the connecting direction, Chinese cargo usually arrives first at the south-eastern US gateways of Fort Lauderdale (FLL) or Miami (MIA). The region is a traditional hub linking the US mainland with Caribbean route networks, and many Caribbean regional carriers base their connections there. After connecting to a Sunrise flight at the US gateway, cargo reaches Port-au-Prince quickly and is distributed by Sunrise domestic services to Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes, Jérémie and other cities. That two-stage structure, a China to south-eastern US mainline plus a US gateway to Caribbean regional leg, is one of the main paths for air freight from China to Haiti today.

For Chinese cargo exported to Haiti, the main categories fall into reconstruction materials and consumer goods. The reconstruction side covers small construction machinery, building materials, hardware tools, medical supplies and aid-funded goods; the consumer side covers textiles and garments, footwear, small appliances, plastic products, phone accessories and seasonal gifts. Haitian consumers have lasting demand for good-value Chinese manufactured goods, and remittance-funded trade adds further consumer goods imports. The Sunrise Port-au-Prince hub links the scattered Haitian cities, which lets a Chinese shipper use Port-au-Prince as a distribution centre and reach out across the country.

For more distant Caribbean cities outside the Sunrise network, cargo can connect at Port-au-Prince or the US gateway to a partner Caribbean carrier. Goodhope calculates the connecting routing and charges at booking, based on the consignee address and transit requirement. Given the special operating environment in Haiti, shippers should have the consignee confirm import permits and local agent arrangements in advance for clearance and pickup.

Freight advantages

The value of Sunrise for Chinese shippers lies at the Caribbean end. First, with Port-au-Prince as its hub Sunrise links the main Haitian cities and the northern Caribbean islands into one network, so Chinese cargo connecting through a south-eastern US gateway can be distributed to Port-au-Prince and domestic destinations in a single move on Sunrise belly capacity, sparing the shipper the coordination cost of finding scattered local carriers. Second, as one of the few local carriers still operating in Haiti, Sunrise knows the local import flows at its Port-au-Prince operation, which helps Chinese consumer goods and reconstruction materials enter the Haitian market smoothly.

In market terms, Haitian imports are dominated by small and medium lots of consumer goods and urgent reconstruction items, with modest volume per shipment but tight transit requirements. Sunrise regional belly capacity fits that demand structure: what one flight carries is moderate, enough for garments, footwear and headwear, phone accessories, small appliances, plastic products, hardware tools and seasonal gifts. Against the long cycle of an all-ocean movement, a belly-hold air channel can compress the replenishment cycle from China to Port-au-Prince to about a week, which helps local distributors and reconstruction projects control inventory and material scheduling.

In addition, aid and remittance-funded flows from China to Haiti give the air channel connected by Sunrise a steady base of volume. For Chinese companies handling trade, aid and construction projects in Haiti, the Caribbean end network that Sunrise represents is a workable channel for delivering Chinese consumer goods and reconstruction materials reliably to the Haitian market. Goodhope can assess the channel's availability and capacity in a given period.

Booking through an agent in China

The standard path for Chinese shippers moving Haiti and Caribbean cargo over Sunrise is as follows. First, the shipper submits a booking instruction to Goodhope Logistics (China) Limited stating the departure airport (Guangzhou CAN is recommended, with consolidation at Shenzhen or Hong Kong and onward movement to the south-eastern US gateway also possible), the destination (Port-au-Prince PAP or a connecting city in the Sunrise network), pieces, weight and dimensions, HS code, and whether the cargo contains batteries, liquids or other restricted elements. Second, Goodhope checks bookable capacity against the China to Fort Lauderdale or Miami schedule and the Sunrise Caribbean timetables, submits the instruction to the carriers concerned and obtains capacity confirmation. Third, the shipper delivers to the departure airport terminal or a designated bonded warehouse before the documentation cut-off and supports screening, palletising and customs declaration. Fourth, after the US gateway connection the cargo flies on Sunrise belly capacity into Port-au-Prince, Goodhope updates the waybill, and on arrival the local ground agent notifies the consignee to clear customs and collect.

Because the path is a two-stage structure of a China to south-eastern US mainline plus a Sunrise Caribbean regional leg, capacity on both legs must be locked together at booking with a reasonable connecting time allowed. Given periodic swings in the Haitian operating environment, the actual operability of the Port-au-Prince flight should be confirmed at the booking stage. For regular shippers Goodhope can consolidate monthly volumes to negotiate contract rates and priority capacity; for urgent shipments it can file an emergency capacity request and arrange terminal handover before the cut-off.

Shippers needing an insurance policy, certificate of origin or accompanying documents can ask for them at booking, and Goodhope's documentation team reviews them in advance so that incomplete paperwork does not cause cargo to sit at destination. For restricted cargo containing lithium batteries, magnetic items, powders or liquids, the relevant test documents must be provided at booking for Goodhope to assess whether carriage is possible and what declarations are needed. Haitian customs clearance and import permit requirements are best confirmed by the consignee in advance.

Other specialist services

Sunrise regional belly capacity carries mainly general cargo, express shipments, trade samples and consumer goods. Textiles and garments, footwear, plastic products, hardware fittings and dried and fresh foods without extreme temperature requirements can move in standard belly conditions. Because the aircraft are regional turboprops and regional jets, payload per flight and hold dimensions are limited, and oversize or overweight equipment is not normally carried direct on Sunrise regional aircraft, so such cargo should be switched to another capacity option at the US gateway. The acceptance rules for dangerous goods, perishables and live animals follow the documents confirmed by the Sunrise cargo department on the day of booking.

For the material needs of Haitian reconstruction and aid, the Sunrise belly network suits fast replenishment of small and medium lots of medical supplies, small construction fittings and household goods. For high-value electronics, a declared value for carriage can be arranged to raise the compensation cover under the waybill. For return cargo, Goodhope can also organize imports from the Caribbean where the carrier's capacity and conditions allow, completing customs clearance and delivery in China.

For transit cargo Sunrise can provide short-term storage and ground handling at Port-au-Prince, which helps after depalletising for distribution to Haitian cities. Where cargo clears customs at Port-au-Prince and then moves by truck or regional service, the ground agent can provide the connection. For any cargo moving across legs, the shipper should give accurate dimensions and weight in writing at booking so that Goodhope and the carrier can assess capacity fit and the palletising plan.

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