It is unclear when the flights would start because negotiations between the Cuban government and the United States airlines could take months.
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Significant progress has been made towards restoring scheduled passenger flights between the Cold War foes since then, however a formal deal has yet to be reached.
Obama announced this summer that the us and Cuba would reopen embassies in each other’s capitals for the first time since 1961, when diplomatic relations between the two nations were severed during the Cold War.
The official return on Tuesday of baseball defectors earning millions in the major leagues was a landmark in the new relationship between Cuba and the United States and a dramatic manifestation of Cuba’s shifting attitude toward the hundreds of players who have abandoned the country that trained them. Only certain airports in the US, such as Miami International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport are authorized to handle flights to Cuba.
Nationally, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines all applauded the U.S.-Cuba agreement and said they will work with the U.S. Department of Transportation to secure rights to fly to Cuba. With the aviation agreement, travel between the USA and Cuba will be allowed on scheduled airline service, which will be more convenient, frequent and easily accessible.
American has been flying to Cuba from the United States since 1991 via charter flights on Boeing 737 jets.
Some details still need to be worked out, and USA planes won’t be landing in Cuba immediately.
American said it will operate about 1,200 charter flights to Cuba this year, which is up 9 percent from those in 2014.
“The day that the president of the United States decides to visit Cuba, he will be welcome”, Josefina Vidal, director of US affairs in the Cuban foreign ministry, told reporters.
Freyre said the last time he was in Havana it caught his eye there were numerous employees being trained at terminal 2, where USA flights arrive and depart. “We’re going to give our best on this visit and we appreciate the opportunity we’ve been given”, said Puig, who left Cuba on a smuggler’s fast-boat in 2012. State Department spokeswoman Kerry Humphrey says that, besides Havana, there are nine worldwide airports in Cuba – so the deal allows for 110 possible flights per day.
In the year since detente, more Americans are visiting Cuba, and more Cubans are trying to reach America, concerned that preferential treatment for Cubans migrants may end.
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New Orleans and Cuba are less than 700 miles apart.
