U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx will travel to Cuba this week to be on hand at the Santa Clara airport for the landing of the first regular flight connecting the two countries in more than 50 years, Cuban Assistant Transportation Minister Eduardo Rodríguez announced Monday.
Advertisement
The first USA commercial flight will take place Wednesday when Jet Blue will fly from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to the central Cuban city of Santa Clara.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes both addressed passengers on board the 150-seat Airbus A320, which was staffed by a specially selected five-member crew of Cuban-Americans. Regular travelers, including some of Cuban descent, will occupy almost half the seats on a route that may be a commercial challenge, at least initially. The countries had been hostile for more than five decades, since Fidel Castro ousted USA -backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in a revolution that steered the island on a communist course and made it a close ally of the Soviet Union.
As we have reported, the USA embargo remains in place, and USA citizens are not allowed to travel to Cuba as tourists.
The restart of commercial travel between the two countries is one of the most important steps in President Barack Obama’s two-year-old policy of normalizing relations with the island.
Despite those limitations, USA airlines have rushed to start flights – adding a lot of capacity and setting themselves up to lose money on the trips in the short run, said industry consultant Robert Mann. “You need to get your foot in the door”.
Nevertheless, Cuban officials have not released their forecasts regarding how much the US passenger flow could increase once regular flights between the two nations commence. Three other carriers will follow.
However, he emphasized that restrictions imposed by the USA economic embargo on the island are still in place and, among other things, that “impedes US citizens from traveling freely to Cuba as tourists”.
Advertisement
He highlighted the reestablishment of these flights as a positive step in the progress of bilateral relations, even though restrictions imposed by the US blockade prevent its citizens from traveling to Cuba as tourists.
