Tuesday, February 16, 2016

US and Cuba to restore commercial flights after 50-years


The United States and Cuba have finally concluded a deal to restore commercial flights for the first time in more than five decades. There would be nearly 110 daily flights from the US to different cities across Cuba - 20 of these would be regular daily flights to Havana by next autumn.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 16 February 2016.
At present US airlines operate 10 to 15 charter flights into the Cuban capital per day. Therefore, this deal marks one of the more significant developments between the former Cold War foes. It has happened after presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced a normalizing of relations in December 2014.
The conclusion of the deal represents a critically important milestone in the US effort to engage with Cuba because this travel agreement opens up the door for US airlines to start bidding on the new routes. American Airlines, which has operated charter flights into Cuba since 1991, has indicated that it would bid on commercial routes from Miami and other US hubs.
Other airlines that have shown an interest are United, Southwest, Delta, JetBlue and Spirit - they also are keen to secure daily routes into Cuba.
Incidentally, in spite of the new agreement, tourism to Cuba remains barred by US law. However, the number of legal reasons for US travelers to go to Cuba have been widely extended and, in fact, are loosely enforced.



Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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