That’s one of the first concrete details to emerge from the new U.S.-Cuba agreement that will allow airlines to add regular passenger service between the nations.
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On December 17, 2014, Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced the launching of a process to normalise bilateral relations that led, last July, to the reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington after more than half a century.
The new rule will authorize several American airlines to retail tickets for flights to Cuba online.
The United States and Cuba have reached an agreement to allow commercial flights to operate between the two countries for the first time in decades, with major US airlines possibly set to take off for the island next year.
Kavulich said this was likely a reference to the possibility that people with claims against Cuba might seek to seize Cuban assets in the United States and he suggested that the United States might do its best to protect such assets. That could boost business and tourism on the island. “We have to make enough moves so that if there is an unfavorable change in the U.S”.
While Thursday’s announcement certainly points to a coming era of positive ties between Cuba and the USA, it does not change the fact that many of Washington’s restrictions against Cuba continue to apply in full force.
The five-decade-old U.S. economic embargo on Cuba remains, with little prospect of Congress lifting it anytime soon, while critics of normalization say the policy has yielded no improvement in the Communist government’s respect for human and political rights.
Castro, 84, also said the two countries had “not made any progress” on issues Cuba considers necessary for normal relations, such as the continued US trade embargo of Cuba, the USA occupation of a naval base at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay, and immigration policy.
Beyond that, it remained unclear how flight rights for the new Cuba routes would be awarded.
Under the deal, airlines from both countries will be able to make commercial agreements such as sharing flight codes and leasing planes to each other.
Under the terms of the aviation deal, up to 30 regularly scheduled flights per day will be permitted: 20 to Havana and 10 to other cities, the Associated Press reports.
“Interest in Cuba has reached levels not seen for a generation”, said JetBlue Senior VP of Airline Planning Scott Laurence.
Diplomatic exchanges between the USA and Cuba came to a screeching halt in 1961 when Washington announced that it would be breaking off its ties with Havana.
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