Six U.S. airlines were approved to begin the first scheduled flights to Cuba in more than 50 years, the Transportation Department announced Friday.
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They are American, Frontier, JetBlue, Silver Airways, Southwest and Minnesota-based Sun Country.
Six US airlines have been licensed to operate up to 90 round-trip flights per day to Cuba, potentially opening up a new era for mass tourism. But Havana flights are capped at 20 daily round trips, and the DOT said it received applications for almost 60 daily flights.
“The fact of the matter is that the American people and the Cuban people overwhelmingly want this to happen”, Rhodes said during a forum at the Meridian International Center, The Washington Post reported.
This will allow American and Cuban carriers to operate up to 110 daily roundtrip flights between the United States and Cuba, as well as an unlimited number of charter services. In December 2014, President Barack Obama eased travel restrictions to allow travel agents and carriers to book flights there without permission from the USA government.
DOT leaders are still evaluating applications for service to Havana and a decision on those routes, up to 20 daily flights, will be released later this summer.
Since President Obama began talking with Cuban leaders about normalizing relations over the past year, online travel agencies have reported a 500% increase in searches for flights to Cuba, according a study by the travel site Hopper. The carrier plans to fly to all nine of the above Cuban cities out of Fort Lauderdale.
USA officials signed an agreement with Cuban authorities in February to allow for re-establishing scheduled flights – including 20 daily round-trip flights to Havana – and the Department of Transportation invited US carriers to apply. At the time of the signing, the administration announced that scheduled service would begin later in 2016.
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Despite the soon-to-be-addition of frequent flights to and from Cuba, you can’t just book a trip on your favorite travel website. The Broward airport will not only feature more competition between airlines but also offer more flights to more locations within Cuba. Flights to Havana have not yet been approved, but officials said they are coming.
