These include American Airlines, which runs 22 weekly charter flights to Cuba from NY and Newark, New Jersey.
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And Southwest released a statement after the commercial flights became official, saying that the airline is excited about the possibility of providing low-fare, high-quality service to Cuba. The U.S. government claimed the talks were aimed to better improve the lives of the Cuban population and strengthen cooperation across the Americas.
USA law doesn’t prohibit traveling to the island per se.
That was almost two years after Cuban President Raul Castro and US President Barack Obama shook hands at the funeral of late South African President Nelson Mandela, their first notable public encounter.
The pact – the most significant business development since the presidents’ announcement one year ago – allows US airlines to negotiate with the Cuban government over commercial flight routes and schedules.
The United States and Cuba have agreed to allow 110 round-trip flights on US airlines to Cuba per day, according to Thomas Engle, deputy assistant secretary for transportation affairs at the US State Department.
Los Angeles Dodgers player Yasiel Puig, from Cuba, greets young baseball players before giving a clinic in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2015, during the first Major League Baseball trip to the island since 1999. “We look forward to offering service between our global gateways and Cuba as soon as we have approval to do so”, airline spokesman Charles Hobart said in an email. The Obama Administration’s removal of Cuba from the State Department’s list as a state sponsor of terrorism, manipulation of the facts regarding human trafficking to aid the Castros and neglecting Cuba’s valiant pro-democracy movement are just a few of the highlights of Obama’s shameful policy.
“The U.S. has a price for Cuban American property and investments lost (nationalised) due to the revolution, and Cuba has a number in mind regarding the economic harm caused by the embargo”.
In other words, the announcement today is a long way from the reality of regularly scheduled flights between the United States and Cuba.
Charter flights operated by United States carriers already connect the countries.
The deal does not mean that Americans will be able to begin booking travel to Cuba immediately.
Kass did not speculate on when commercial flights might be opened to USA tourists. JetBlue offers free Fly-Fi broadband internet, the most inflight entertainment, free snacks and soft drinks, and the most legroom in coach(a).
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As a result, analysts like Smith say they expect “official” change to continue slowly – even as a transformation in the relationship between the two countries accelerates as “people-to-people” contacts expand. “There is no beef, nothing has happened.’ We were promised new businesses would spring up, that there was going to be human rights improvements”, said Coral Gables Mayor Jim Cason.
