The department said seven us airlines applied to provide service to other Cuban cities.
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As part of the Obama Administration’s overall effort to normalize relations, six US airlines are now cleared for takeoff to Cuba, with the flights coming from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Philadelphia and Minneapolis/St. Paul. “Today we are delivering on his promise”, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said.
Dallas/Fort Worth-based American has been authorized to fly 2X daily between Miami and the Cuban destinations Santa Clara, Holguin and Matanzas, and daily between Miami and Camaguey and Cienfuegos.
Strong demand will come from Cuban-Americans visiting relatives, leisure travelers desiring a once off-limits experience, and executives paying for business-class fares to evaluate commercial opportunities, experts said.
Flights will begin as early as the fall, the department said.
The US cities with flights to Cuba will be Miami; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Chicago; Philadelphia and Minneapolis, according to DOT. At the time of the signing, government officials announced that scheduled service would commence sometime this year. Action on the application of Eastern Airlines was deferred, the DOT said, because that company hasn’t completed the licensing to conduct scheduled flights.
Despite the resumption of direct commercial flights, U.S. citizens are still prohibited by the embargo from carrying out tourism in Cuba; thus the number that will be allowed to travel to the island will remain a limited number of people under the dozen categories permitted under “people to people” travel.
For more than five decades, only charter flights were allowed between the two nations.
Cuba is home to scores of Americans wanted back home on charges from murder to Medicare fraud.
Those looking to visit for leisure are still out of luck as tourist travel still officially remains prohibited. But the department is still considering which airlines will get a combined 20 daily flights to the capital out of almost 60 proposed flights, which will be announced later this summer.
The six airlines will be able to offer up to 155 roundtrip flights per week.
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Cuban aviation officials say they are ready for the extra flights but that questions remain, especially at Havana’s airport, about where the additional planes will park.
