The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Friday that U.S. airlines will begin scheduled service to Cuba from five American cities, including Chicago. While charter flights have been allowed for years, the announcement resumes scheduled airline flights. American has hubs in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. American is a founding member of the oneworld alliance, whose members and members-elect serve almost 1,000 destinations with 14,250 daily flights to 150 countries.
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The U.S. Department of Transportation gave the approval to American Airlines, JetBlue, Silver Airways, Southwest, Sun Country and Frontier.
The new flights will feature destinations like Camagüey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguín, Manzanillo, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba.
“The resumption of scheduled air service to Cuba is a historic achievement and we commend Secretary Foxx and his team for making it a reality”, said Steve Johnson, American’s executive vice president of corporate affairs. According to the Department of Transportation, U.S. carriers have collectively requested almost 60 flights per day to Havana which requires a second selection process.
Cuban and USA flags are seen on the balcony of a restaurant in downtown Havana, Cuba March 19, 2016.
However, in a fact sheet released along with the statement, the Department of Transportation made clear that travel to Cuba as a tourist is still strictly prohibited.
“Today, we are delivering on his promise by re-launching scheduled air service to Cuba after more than half a century”, he said.
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The U.S. has since removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and the two countries reopened embassies in each other’s capitals in July.
