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First US-Cuba scheduled passenger flight in five decades

A commercial US flight touched down in Cuba on Wednesday for the first time in 50 years, marking a historic milestone in President Obama’s push to normalize relations with the island nation.

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JetBlue will be covering that route with three weekly flights until the end of October, and then increase frequency to daily flights.

In addition, I am excited to announce that Department of Transportation has finalized its selection of eight USA airlines to begin scheduled flights to Havana as early as this fall.

Under the arrangement, each country’s airlines may operate up to 20 daily roundtrip flights between the USA and Havana.

Scheduled air service between the U.S. and Cuba resumed earlier today after a hiatus of 55 years, with a JetBlue Airways flight from Fort Lauderdale to Santa Clara. Kerry pointed out that the flight took off just over a year after the USA embassy re-opened in Havana.

Image credit: Alejandro Ernesto/EFERichard Feinberg, the author of Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy, has stated that “seeing the American airlines landing routinely around the island will drive a sense of openness, integration and normality”. The airline has secured Cuban approval to fly to Camaguey, Cienfuegos, and Holguin but is still awaiting the OK to fly from Fort Lauderdale to Santiago de Cuba, Cayo Coco, Varadero, Cayo Largo and Manzanillo.

The last regular commercial flight between the two countries took place in 1961, when air links fell victim to the Cold War.

Hundreds of thousands of Cuban-born Americans fly to the island each year with the chaotic, understaffed charter companies.

A JetBlue Airways Corp passenger jet arrived from Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara. Tourism in Cuba is still banned for Americans, but there are now 12 “authorized travel” categories, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury.

-Cuban relations and loosening of restrictions on travel to the Communist-run island have led to a surge in US visitors, up 93 percent from a year ago, according to Cuban government figures. Delta says today it plans to begin Havana flights from Atlanta, Miami and New York JFK on 1 December, and Spirit says it will launch Fort Lauderdale-Havana flights on the same day.

Traveling to Cuba involves advance planning.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx announced on Twitter Tuesday that he too would be on board the flight.

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The President is unable to lift the trade embargo and under USA law Americans are still not permitted to travel to the United States for tourism.

The First Commercial Flight From the U.S. to Cuba in 53 Years Just Happened