Above: a Sunrise airways plane (Courtesy Sunrise Airways/SBPR)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

New air carrier Sunrise Airways says it has received permission to operate flights between Cuba and Haiti.

The twice-weekly private service will operate between Port-au-Prince and Holguin. It is set to launch the service in the “early autumn” of 2013.

It is the second new international route for the company, which launched new service between Cap-Haitien and Providenciales, Turks and Caicos last month.

“This initial entry into the Cuban market is another important step toward our development plans, although this is only the beginning,” said Philippe Bayard, president of Sunrise Airways. “As we move forward, we hope to expand to other areas around Cuba, establishing even broader travel options for both tourist and business travelers in the coming months.”

The new service will operate on a charter basis to start out. The company will offer the possibility of booking all-inclusive packages through SIREP Tours and Cubatur in Cuba.

Sunrise hopes to transition to regular passenger service as the market grows, Bayard said.

The company will operate the service using 19-seat Jetstream 32 aircraft.

In other news, the company announced that it had named Rodolfo Cueto Guerra its new director of ground operations.

Cueto, a native of Havana, will direct responsibility for ground handling services covering all Sunrise Airways flights.